This accessibility statement applies specifically to the University of Birmingham LibGuides. Content on LibGuides is produced by the University of Birmingham and hosted on a platform provided by Springshare.
We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
- zoom in to most content up to 400%
- navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
- listen to most of the website using a screen reader
Where we can, 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 is this website?
We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible:
- When navigating via the keyboard, focus is not visible in the parts of the navigation menu.
- Some images are missing alt text or are incorrectly marked as decorative.
- Some videos and images do not display properly at high levels of zoom or on very small screens.
- Some pages contain text where the structure and relationships are conveyed by presentation only, for example headings or bulleted lists not marked as such.
- Some pages contain headings in non-consecutive order or skip heading levels.
- Some pages contain text which is low contrast.
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille, or need any further help, please contact us.
We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible.
If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting your accessibility requirements, please contact library@mail.libanswers.bham.ac.uk, for the attention of the Digital Library team.
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).
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
The University of Birmingham 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 has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
Issues grouped by WCAG 2.2 criteria:
1.1.1 Non-text content
- Some images are missing alt text or are incorrectly marked as decorative.
1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded)
- Some video captions cannot be viewed in the embedded version. The captions can only be accessed by opening the full screen version of the video.
1.3.1 Info and relationships
- Some pages contain headings in non-consecutive order or skip heading levels.
- Some pages contain text where the structure and relationships are conveyed through presentation only, for example they may contain lists which are not correctly formatted as an unordered list or headings which are not marked as such.
- Some pages contain tables which do not have header rows.
1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
- The colour contrast of the text on some page elements (for example the search boxes on each page) is lower than the recommended minimum.
1.4.10 Reflow
- Where videos are embedded on pages, the title of the video and the video controls do not always fully display on small screens or at high levels of zoom.
- The aspect ratios of some images are not preserved when viewing pages on small screens or at high levels of zoom. This makes the images appear distorted.
2.4.7 Focus visible
- When navigating using the keyboard, focus is not visible in parts of the navigation menu.
4.1.2 Name, role, value
- When videos have been embedded into pages, the iframe of the video does not have a title value.
Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
The site contains links to a range of third party content which the University does not control. We are not responsible for the accessibility of this content.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We have provided updated training and guidance to page authors and are working with them to check and edit their content to remove accessibility issues. We expect all authors to have reviewed their existing guides by end of December 2025. All new guides are checked for their accessibility before being published for the first time.
Where accessibility issues are caused by the LibGuides platform itself, rather than the content we have created, we will liaise with Springshare to report the problem and seek a solution in line with the Springshare accessibility statement.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 9 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 4 February 2025.
This website was last tested in December 2024 and January 2025. The testing was carried out by Libraries and Learning Resources staff, using a manual checklist, plus the tools Deque Axe DevTools, Accessibility Insights for the Web, Silktide and NVDA. We tested the 10 most visited guides based on the period November 2023 to November 2024.