Accessibility statement for Fairbairn website

Website accessibility statement inline with Public Sector Body (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018

This accessibility statement applies to http://www.fairbairn.ac.uk/

Fairbairn (http://www.fairbairn.ac.uk/) is a website hosted by the University of Edinburgh Library on behalf of the University of Edinburgh. It holds collection information and images from W. Ronald D. Fairbairn including his personal library, held by Edinburgh University Library and his papers, diaries and correspondence held in the National Library of Scotland.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use our website. For example, this means you should be able to:

  • using your browser settings, change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in up to 500%
  • 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, and NVDA)
  • interact with the website without encountering any time limits
  • interact with the website without encountering any flashing, moving or scrolling text.

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

Customising the website

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability. This is an external site with suggestions to make your computer more accessible:

AbilityNet - My computer my way

With a few simple steps you can customise the appearance of our website using your browser settings to make it easier to read and navigate:

Additional information on how to customise our website appearance

If you are a member of University staff or a student, you can use the free SensusAccess accessible document conversion service:

Information on SensusAccess

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • Keyboard navigation does not follow a logical order e.g. the footer is read before the sidebar menu
  • It could be clearer to keyboard users where they have navigated to on a page
  • There is no skip to main content option
  • Pages do not reflow above 200%
  • Users are not alerted when a link will open a new browser tab
  • Link text does not always give a clear indication of link purpose
  • There are some cases where text is an image
  • Not all colour contrasts meet recommend colour contrast guidance
  • Not all non-text items have alt text.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille please contact the website team by contacting us:

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

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are 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, please contact:

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

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 please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) directly:

Contact details for the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)

The government has produced information on how to report accessibility issues:

Reporting an accessibility problem on a public sector website

Contacting us by phone using British Sign Language

British Sign Language service Contact Scotland BSL runs a service for British Sign Language users and all of Scotland’s public bodies using video relay. This enables sign language users to contact public bodies and vice versa. The service operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Contact Scotland BSL service details

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The University of Edinburgh is committed to making its websites and applications accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

The full guidelines are available at:

 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1

Non accessible content

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

Noncompliance with the accessibility regulations

The following items to not comply with the WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria:

  • Not all non-text content presented to users has alternative text
  • Information, structure and relationships conveyed through presentation cannot always be programmatically determined. This includes a missing < h1 > on the homepage.
  • There may not be sufficient colour contrast between font and background colours, especially where the text size is small
  • Information is conveyed as an image of text rather than as text itself, making it not compatible with screen readers and other assistive technology and is not fully customisable
  • Site is not fully compatible with browser customisation meaning that users do not have full control and functionality when customising the site (WCAG 2.1 AAA)
  • Site does not require scrolling in two dimensions up to 500% but there is some distortion or loss of content above 150%
  • It is not always possible to bypass blocks of content that are repeated on multiple Web pages
  • Keyboard navigation through pages does not always follow a logical sequence
  • Link purpose is not always clear
  • Information, structure and relationships conveyed through presentation cannot always be programmatically determined. This includes missing heading labels
  • Visual information to identify user interface components, such as keyboard focus, do not always have a sufficient contrast ratio
  • Some links open in a new browser window without warning

At this time, we believe all items are within our control. Unless specified otherwise, a complete solution, or significant improvement, will be in place for those items within our control by March 2024.

Disproportionate burden

We are not currently claiming that any accessibility problems would be a disproportionate burden to fix.

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

Interactive maps

This website hosts a mapping service. Currently, online mapping and mapping services sit outwith the 2018 accessibility regulations.

“These Regulations do not apply to the following content of a website or mobile application of a public sector body— (d)online maps and mapping services, as long as essential information is provided in an accessible digital manner for maps intended for navigational use;” (The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018)”

The mapping service is not fully accessible, as it is not possible to interact with individual map features using assistive technologies. Although maps are currently not within the scope of the regulations, we will continue to strive to make the site as accessible as possible.

There is additional information available in different formats, including maps, to download and information in the AccessAble - UoE app available for iOS and Android:

AccessAble Information.

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We will continue to address the accessibility issues highlighted, either through delivery of a solution or suitable workaround. Unless specified otherwise, a complete solution or significant improvement will be in place for those items within our control by March 2024.

Whilst we are in the process of resolving these accessibility issues, or where we are unable, we will ensure reasonable adjustments are in place to make sure no user is disadvantaged. As changes are made, we will continue to review accessibility and retest the accessibility of this website.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 20th February 2023. It was last reviewed on 20th February 2023.

This website was first tested in August 2020 and last tested in June 2022.

The testing was carried out by The University Library and University Collections Digital Library Development team using the automated Wave WEBAIM and Little Forest testing tool.

This website was last tested by the Library and University Collections Digital Library team, University of Edinburgh on the 4th July 2022 using automated and manual methods (following on from previous automated testing of the system the previous year.) This was primarily using the Google Chrome (100.0.4896.127), Mozilla Firefox (91.8.0esr), and Microsoft Edge (100.0.1185.39) browsers for comparative purposes.

Recent world-wide usage levels survey for different screen readers and browsers shows that Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge are increasing in popularity and Google Chrome is now the favoured browser for screen readers:

WebAIM: Screen Reader User Survey

The aforementioned three browsers have been used in certain questions for reasons of breadth and variety.

We ran automated testing using Wave WEBAIM andLittle Forest then manual testing that included:

  • Spell check functionality;
  • Scaling using different resolutions and reflow;
  • Options to customise the interface (magnification, font, background colour, etc);
  • Keyboard navigation and keyboard traps;
  • Data validation;
  • Warning of links opening in a new tab or window;
  • Information conveyed in colour or sound only;
  • Flashing, moving or scrolling text;
  • Operability if JavaScript is disabled;
  • Use with screen reading software (for example, JAWS);
  • Assistive software (TextHelp Read and Write, Windows Magnifier, ZoomText, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, TalkBack and VoiceOver);
  • Tooltips and text alternatives for any non-text content;
  • Time limits;
  • Compatibility with mobile accessibility functionality (Android and iOS).

Change Log

Since our first evaluation and statement, which was based on automated testing, we have undertaken extensive manual testing. This includes utilising a range of assistive technology to ensure we have a clear picture of the accessibility issues and how best to resolve them.

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