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Higgs Centre Website Accessibility

Accessibility statement for the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics website

This statement covers the website of the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics. The Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics is part of the School of Physics and Astronomy (www.ph.ed.ac.uk) at the University of Edinburgh (www.ed.ac.uk). 

This accessibility statement applies to the website domain: www.higgs.ph.ed.ac.uk.

This website is run by the University of Edinburgh.

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 200% 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.

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

How accessible this website is

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

  • not all media will have a transcript or be subtitled
  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • workshops that are based on indico, if using pictures, do not have alternative text

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:

We'll try and respond as quickly as possible but this will be no more than 5 working days. .

BSL users can contact us via contactSCOTLAND-BSL, the free on-line British Sign Language interpreting service.

Contact details for contactSCOTLAND.

If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, call or email us for directions.

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: Ines Foidl the Higgs Centre Administrator via email hctp@ed.ac.uk or call 0044 (0)131 650 53 24.

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 or visiting us in person

BSL users can contact us via contactSCOTLAND-BSL, the free on-line British Sign Language interpreting service.

Contact details for contactSCOTLAND

You may want to check accessibility status of our building via AccessAble.

Check AccessAble

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The University of Edinburgh 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 listed below.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • No alternative text or meta description possible for event pages based on indico
  • Some titles are too long, specifically workshop and other event titles with scientific jargon
  • Not all videos will have subtitles or subtitles that identify all speakers as well as noting other significant sounds e.g. laughter
  • There may not be sufficient colour contrast between font and background colours especially where the text size is very small (for example, the ‘Twitter’ link at the bottom of navigation – however, the brand-colour of ‘Twitter’ should be known well-enough to make up for this).
  • Google reCAPTCHA causes an accessibility error due to a missing label. We have researched and explored ways to fix this but have unfortunately not found a solution. We have tested with a screen reader and different browsers and it is still possible to interact with and solve the reCAPTCHA. Also using the audio test to solve additional verification works with a screen reader. It worked especially well using the Chrome browser.
  • Not all our PDF’s and Word documents meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This is due to the fact that some PDF's are presentations from talks as provided by speakers. We are always willing to ask for and provide different formats.

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.

Disproportionate burden

We are not claiming disproportionate burden at this moment.

Navigation and accessing information

It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.

Note, there is a sitemap available in case it proves easier to find the required content.

Higgs Centre Website Sitemap

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

Campus maps

It is unlikely that the map application on the website is fully accessible with all assistive technologies. However maps are currently not within the scope of the regulations.

There is a lot of additional information available in different formats including maps to download and information in the AccessAble - UoE app available for iOS and Android.

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and posters of old Conferences available which people can print out. However, any essential information, for example on how to join an event, is always also be available through alternative accessible HTML pages of such PDFs. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value)

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 from 2013: https://higgs.ph.ed.ac.uk/workshops/the-higgs-symposium/.

Regulations for PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. Some of the online meeting platforms used, e.g. Zoom or MSTeams, offer automatic transcription for viewers if so needed, though.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

  • We will make discussions on accessibility a standing item on a quasi-regular monthly meeting between the member of the Higgs Centre Management Committee responsible for the Higgs Centre website, the Higgs Centre Administrator and the School of Physics and Astronomy Higgs Centre liaison.
  • Continue to run manual and automated reports (using the University provided Little Forest software).

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 17 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 28 July 2023.

This website was last tested on 24 July 2023. The test was carried out by an automated service, Little Forest, with an AA score of 87%.

Additionally, we sampled pages via https://wave.webaim.org/extension/. The testing is followed by manual prioritisation of any issues with key user journeys. We chose sample pages based on the main navigation tabs of the website as those will be the ones most visited by people.