Accessibility Statement for Boston College
This accessibility statement applies to Boston College’s website.
This website is run by Boston College. 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 up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
- Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
- 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 this website are not fully accessible:
- You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
- Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
- Live video streams do not have captions
- Not all images have alt text applied
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
Debbie Holland – Vice Principal: Finance and Corporate Services
debbie-h@boston.ac.uk | 01205 365701
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 Debbie Holland – Vice Principal: Finance and Corporate Services, debbie-h@boston.ac.uk, 01205 365701
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).
Contacting us by phone or email
Debbie Holland – Vice Principal: Finance and Corporate Services
debbie-h@boston.ac.uk | 01205 365701
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Boston College 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 partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
If you find something that we missed, please contact Debbie Holland – Vice Principal: Finance and Corporate Services on debbie-h@boston.ac.uk or 01205 365701.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
Links without meaningful purpose
Some links are not labelled clearly – this could mean that the links do not make sense when taken out of context or that it is not possible to know their purpose. This fails WCAG: 2.4.4.
We are working to provide meaningful information on hyperlinked text on the website and to fix issues where identified. Please contact us if you experience issues with accessing content through hyperlinks.
We are currently in the process of fixing this issue, and will be completed before the review in August 2023.
Issue with interactive elements
Some of our interactive elements (i.e slideshows) do not have the required descriptive tags and labels. This means the element will be invisible to assistive technology. This fails WCAG: 4.1.2.
We are currently in the process of fixing this issue, and will be completed before the review in August 2023.
Images without a description
The images on the website have been audited and majority of them contain meaningful alt-text and/or image descriptions, where required. However, some images on our website do not have appropriate alternative text, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 1.1.1.
Some images which are purely decorative are also not identified.
We plan to add alternative text for all images by March 2023. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.
Images of text
Images of text caused problems for users who need to adjust how visual content like font size, spacing or colours are displayed. The image quality can reduce and become blurry when users increase page magnification. This fails WCAG: 1.4.5.
We are currently in the process of fixing this issue, and will be completed before the review in August 2023.
Focus Visible
Focus visible is important for low vision users, people with motor disability and attention disorders. We are aware that keyboard focus is not visible/becomes lost on certain elements, and this leads to keyboard focus users not being able to determine where their current focus is. This fails WCAG: 2.4.7
We are currently in the process of fixing this issue, and will be completed before the review in August 2023.
Contrast issues
Some pages contain elements with insufficient contrast between the element and its background. This can cause text to be difficult to ready. This fails WCAG: 1.4.3
We are working to fix these issues. During this time, you can change the colours and contract of the website by using a third party tool such as Change Colors for Chrome.
We are currently in the process of fixing this issue, and will be completed before the review in August 2023.
Heading
The heading structure of the website has been designed to improve page navigation and user experience. However, some of the text on a page may be style to appear visually like a heading. This means the headings hasn’t been defined with a HTML tag. This fails WCAG: 2.4.6 and 1.3.1.
We are currently in the process of fixing this issue and will be completed before the review in August 2023.
Keyboard
Not all features of the website can be accessed via keyboard - this means those who navigate the website using a keyboard can not access certain information. This fails WCAG: 2.1.1.
We are currently in the process of fixing this issue and will be completed before the review in August 2023.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. By August 2023, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.
The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
Live video
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
Map
Our website used Google Maps. If you cannot read the map, we also have our address listed alongside the map.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
Our accessibility roadmap shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website.
We seek to fix accessibility issues identified through our auditing process or feedback by users as quickly as possible.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on Friday 9th December 2022. It was last reviewed on Thursday 5th January 2023.
This website was last tested on Wednesday 7th December 2022 using AXE Dev, Web Accessibility Testing.
The website will next be tested in January 2023, followed by another review in August 2023 by Boston College. We use the approach of selecting those pages with the highest visitor stats, as well as those pages included in the main user journey. We use Axe Dev, Web Accessibility Testing to test the website.