ELE Moodle Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement for ELE (Plain English)

This website is run by the University of Exeter and is a Moodle-based VLE. This statement focuses on information relating to the provision of accessible and inclusive learning on the University of Exeter’s Moodle platform, ELE.

Moodle is designed to be accessible, it is also highly customisable which means authors are free to create and upload content and resources of their choosing. As a result it is not possible to guarantee that all content hosted on the VLE is fully accessible.

You can explore further options on how to make your digital content more accessible on our Digital Accessibility Advice page.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

That means you should be able to:

Change the colours, contrast levels, font styles and magnify the page to 200% or more without the text spilling off the screen.
Navigate by headings - Use browser plugins or assistive technology such as screen readers to list the headings and subheadings in the page and go straight to the heading you need.
Navigate by link - Users of assistive technology such as screen readers can get a list of all the links on a page and understand their purpose from the link text.
Navigate by keyboard - Users navigating by keyboard can see the currently focused on interactive element, such as links and form fields through a highlighted outline.
Skip to content: - Use a keyboard to find the skip links and jump directly to the main content on the page.
Listen to content - Use text to speech browser plugins or assistive technology to listen to content you select with the mouse or keyboard.
Download documents in alternative formats using SensusAccess.

Teaching resources embedded within or linked to Moodle VLE

We intend to provide accessible learning resources by ensuring:

Teaching staff create PowerPoint presentations, Word and PDF documents using a clear layout, alt text descriptions for images, sans serif fonts at a minimum 11pt, coloured text that has high contrast against backgrounds and descriptive links.
Teaching staff and course/module administrators adhere to accessibility recommendations when editing within Moodle such as labels, text boxes, section headings or resource descriptions.
Teaching staff provide all teaching resources in a timely manner.
All recorded Recap videos to include auto-generated captions and auto-generated text transcript as minimal requirement, with presentation slides or lecture notes where possible. Where auto-captions impede learning and a request has been received by a student, enhanced captions and transcript will be made available.
Third-party video use, such as those shared via YouTube links, have the in-built captioning function available, wherever possible or are summarised in text by teaching teams if it is considered an essential part of study.
Third-party interactive activities are checked for accessibility parameters prior to being used with students, whilst teaching teams establish an alternative method for students to engage, if required.

To achieve this, we are committed to:

Providing guidance, and annual staff development for teaching staff on how to create inclusive PowerPoint, Word and PDF resources, using sector best practice recommendations and championing use of the in-built accessibility checker tools as standard practice.
Providing teaching teams with standardised and optimised School templates for all teaching resource creation.
Ensuring all teaching teams have a process for students to request accessible content, if identified and working with teaching teams to ensure such resources are replaced with inclusive resources as soon as possible.
Ensuring that students have access to SensusAccess to provide format transformation and conversion opportunities to students where required.
Providing information to students regarding simple accessibility tools students can use to improve their learning experience, including how to access accessibility features on a Windows computer and Mac, navigating Moodle via the keyboard, IT support within Moodle, free screen reading software, contrast browser extensions, assistive writing tools, free voice typing and text to speech software and translation websites.

AbilityNet’s “My Computer My Way” pages have advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability, which should help you with the above features.

Potential issues

We are aware that some parts of this website are not fully accessible. We are working on these parts of the site and are committed to producing an accessible site for all users. We are providing staff with the knowledge and resources to support and encourage them in making their content accessible.

Those parts with accessibility problems are as follows:

Most older PDF and Word documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
Embedded YouTube videos are not fully accessible to screen reader software
The colour contrast on some page elements is insufficient to be easily discernible for all users
ARIA tags are not used consistently throughout the site
Alternative text is not always applied consistently throughout the site
The line height or spacing of text cannot be modified by the user
Our videos and live video streams do not have captions or audio description

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website (ELE)

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of the virtual learning environment and are continuing to audit our content. If you find something that you are unable to access, or we have failed to identify a barrier, please let us know.

If there are issues relating to the content of a specific module, please contact your module lead.

If there are issues with library related content, please contact the Library Team.

If there are issues with the wider virtual learning environment (ELE) please contact the Technology Enhanced Learning Team:Tel-team@exeter.ac.uk we will consider your request and endeavour to respond within 10 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, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Accessibility Statement for ELE (Technical)

We are committed to making our websites and mobile applications accessible, in accordance with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 No.952.

Compliance Status

This website is partially compliant with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 No.952, due to the non-compliance on the Moodle Accessibility page.

Alternative formats

We provide a facility within Moodle whereby resources can be downloaded in a range of alternative formats via the use of SensusAccess.

Non-accessible Content

We work to achieve and maintain WCAG 2.1 AA standards, but it is not always possible for all our content to be accessible. Where content is likely to create a barrier, we will state a reason, warn users, and offer alternatives.

If we have failed to identify a barrier to learning from within ELE, please contact the Technology Enhanced Learning Team at Tel-team@exeter.ac.uk
The site also contains a range of third-party content and functionality. This may direct you to a related service, or partner we work with, where we are not responsible for the accessibility of this content.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We plan to add text alternatives for all images by September 2020. When we publish new content, we will make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Not all videos have captions, which fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2 (Captions [Pre-recorded]).

Disproportionate burden

There is a large body of content built up over many years, and it is a disproportionate burden to update this all at once. However where there are opportunities to redevelop/replace teaching resources, this should be implemented with accessible and inclusive considerations.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

Provide staff with resources and training to ensure their learning content is accessible.
Ensuring Deans of Education/Heads of Department are aware of accessibility requirements and thinking about how students can be best supported.

Complaints Procedure

If you are unhappy with the response you have received from the University about your accessibility-related issue, you can make a complaint to the University by Student complaints procedure.

This statement was prepared on 3rd June 2020. This statement was last updated on 10th June 2023.