Contact us
The main page content begins here.

Accessibility statement of the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics website

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

This accessibility statement applies to:

https://higgs.ph.ed.ac.uk

This website is run by The School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this application. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • Change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • Zoom in up to 500% without the text spilling off the screen
  • Listen to most of the application using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
  • Use the website without encountering any time limits.
  • Encounter no moving, flashing or scrolling content

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand. However, some of our content is technical, and we use technical terms where there is no easier wording we could use without changing what the text means.

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:

  • Some links open pop ups and new tabs or browser windows without warning
  • All colour contrasts do not meet contrast ratios
  • Not all media will have human corrected captions
  • Not all media has audio descriptions
  • Not all media has transcripts
  • PDF documents are not fully accessible
  • Not all images have alt-text
  • There are examples of text as an image
  • Some of the links are not meaningful hypertext
  • Screen Readers such as JAWS are not fully compatible with the site
  • Voice recognition software e.g. Dragon is not fully compatible with the site
  • Some information on the website is conveyed in colour only, such as links and the calendar
  • There are some pages on the website that are not fully accessible through keyboard
  • Selection displays could be made clearer on the site

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, including accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille:

We’ll 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’ll 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 from 8.00am to 12.00am, 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.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

The full guidelines are available at:

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard

Non-accessible content

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

Noncompliance with the accessibility regulations

The following items do not comoply with the WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria:

We aim to improve our websites accessibility on a regular and continuous basis. See the section below ('What we're doing to improve accessibility') on how we are improving our site accessibility.

We are working towards solving these problems and expect significant improvements by April 2026. The site is fully within our control.

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

We do not plan to add captions and human corrected subtitles to all live video streams because live videos are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations . Some of the online meeting platforms used (Zoom or MS Teams) offer automatic transcription for viewers if so needed.

Some of our PDFs and Word documents on the website do not meet accessibility standards, they can’t be navigated by keyboard and they do not work effectively with assistive technology. All essential content, such as how to join an event is available through alternative 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. For example, we do not plan to fix lecture notes or background materials from the Higgs Symposium in 2013.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

The Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics will continue to address and make adequate improvements to the accessibility issues highlighted. Unless specified otherwise, a complete solution or significant improvement will be in place by April 2026.

While we are in the process of resolving these accessibility issues, 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 24th of April 2025. It was last reviewed 28th of April 2025.

The website was last tested on the 10th of April 2025. The testing was carried out by The Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics, within the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh using both automated and manual methods. The site was tested on a PC, primarily using Microsoft Edge alongside Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

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 AXE and 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 new tab or window;
  • Information conveyed in the colour or sound only;
  • Flashing, moving or scrolling text;
  • Use with screen reading software (for example JAWS);
  • Assistive software (TextHelp Read and Write, Windows Magnifier, ZoomText, Dragon Naturally Speaking, TalkBack and VoiceOver);
  • Tooltips and text alternatives for any non-text content;
  • Time limits;
  • Compatibility with mobile accessibility functionality (Android and iOS);
  • Any drag functionality and alternatives;
  • Consistent help function;
  • No need to re enter data already submitted;
  • Any cognitive tests;