This website is run by Aston University. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of Aston Data Explorer are not fully accessible:

• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• some images (including linked images) do not have alternative text descriptions
• some form controls do not have an associated label

More details about areas of Aston Data Explorer that are not fully accessible can be found below in the 'Non compliance with the accessibility regulations' section of this statement.

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need further information on using these services, need to receive the information in a different format, or need accessible versions of the PDFs of the publications or datasets you find in your search, please make a request using the contact details listed. We will do everything possible to meet user accessibility requests; however, some files (particularly older ones) may not be accessible and we may not be able to provide text relay services to external requestors. Research datasets in Aston Data Explorer will be in a variety of formats, only some of which will be accessible.

• Email: openaccess@aston.ac.uk
• Phone: 0121 204 4525
• A live chat facility is offered as an alternative to phone calls via https://www2.aston.ac.uk/library
• In person: Hearing loops are available at Library Reception and Help Point
• The Enabling Team at Aston University provide guidance and support for Aston students and staff, and their website has further information on resources and tools available to meet accessibility needs.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements contact us via the information above.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Text relay requests

Internal requests for text relay can be met through Aston University’s licensed accessibility software. Unfortunately, the terms of our licence do not permit us to use this software to share converted files with external requestors.

For further information, please contact us at openaccess@aston.ac.uk.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Aston University is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

This website is not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. The non-accessible sections are listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

• Some images, including linked images, do not have any alternative texts associated with them.
• Some form controls do not have associated names.
• Some links do not have explanatory text associated with them.
• The contrast in some parts of the website is very low.
• Some tables do not have headers for columns or rows.
• Some pages contain several links to the same source.
• Some pages contain very small text.
• Some pages contain layout tables, which may be difficult to navigate with screen readers.
• Heading levels are skipped on some pages, this might make navigating the page using a keyboard more difficult.
• The title attribute value (advisory information that appears when user hovers over an element) is the same as the title text in some instances.
• Some event handler links may only respond to either mouse or keyboard.
• The text of some links may not make sense out of context or may contain extraneous text.
• Some pages contain javascript jump menus, which may make navigating the website by keyboard difficult.

These issues will be resolved in a planned upgrade to this repository.

Disproportionate burden

None of the issues listed above present a disproportionate burden to fix. They will all be resolved as part of a planned upgrade.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

As Aston Data Explorer is an open access research repository, the principal content made available to users are research outputs such as articles, papers, posters and reports, many of which are PDF documents. Many PDF documents, especially older ones, are not fully accessible to screen reader software and do not contain other common accessibility features. In particular:

• many documents, especially older ones, do not conform to the PDF/A archiving format.
• many lack bookmarks or document titles, therefore failing to meet WCAG 2.1 success criteria 2.4.5 and 2.4.2.
• many discuss scientific or scholarly concepts which may be abbreviated with no mechanism for discovering the meaning of the abbreviations, or unusual words arising from scholarly discourse without definitions. These issues each fail WCAG 2.1 criteria 3.1.4 and 3.1.1 respectively.
• there may be some documents that fail to specify their human language, thereby failing WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.1.
• many documents may not reflow satisfactorily. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.10.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Our Accessibility Roadmap shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 25/08/2020. It was last updated on 28/10/2021.

This website was last tested on 28/10/21 The test was carried out by CoSector, University of London.

We used this method to decide on a sample of pages to test.