Accessibility statement for Myplace

This website is run by University of Strathclyde. 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 400% 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. 

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 aren’t fully accessible: 

  • navigation of some class sites that use a collapsible format may be problematic using only keyboard due to lack of keyboard controls to show / hide content
  • some of the forms and search functions on our website are not labelled appropriately
  • some pages on our website may include other pages and that may not be responsive
  • some images have missing or inappropriate alt text
  • some videos have missing or inaccurate captions or transcripts
  • the colour contrast for some elements and parts of text is not sufficient
  • our link text does not always make sense when removed from the context of the page, such as “Read more”
  • headings do not appear in a logical order on some pages
  • some of our ARIA labelling is not valid or used correctly
  • some of our PDFs and Word documents are not correctly structured

Feedback & contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page, or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact help@strath.ac.uk with details of the issue you have encountered.

If you need information on this website in a different format, like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please email help@strath.ac.uk. 

The relevant University team will consider the issue and get back to you in five 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, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The University of Strathclyde is committed to making classes.myplace.strath.ac.uk accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. 

Compliance status

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.

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

Non-accessible content 

We know that some parts of the website aren't fully accessible: 

Issues with content 

  • some of our buttons, icons, navigational blocks and text have insufficient colour contrast against the background. They do not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum) and 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast
  • some headings do not match the visual structure of the page or do not appear in a logical order. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
  • some non-heading text uses heading semantics or look like a heading. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
  • some of our links do not make sense or are unhelpful when removed from the context of surrounding content. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context)
  • some of our list items - <li> - do not have a <ul> or <ol> parent element. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
  • in some pages where more than one language is used, such as our language classes, this cannot be programmatically determined. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.1.2 Language of Parts

Issues with images, video & audio 

  • some of the alt tags for functional images are missing or not appropriate. Not all decorative images are marked as such. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content
  • some pages include images of text. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.5 Images of Text
  • some of our videos are missing captions. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.2: Captions (Prerecorded)
  • some pre-recorded videos are missing audio descriptions or transcripts to describe additional visual content. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded)

Issues with interactive tools & transactions 

  • when navigating by keyboard, some focus indicators on our course pages are not clearly visible. This means that keyboard users may not understand their location on the page. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.7 Focus visible and 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast
  • some of the forms and interactive search pages on our website are not appropriately labelled or do not have an accessible name. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value
  • some of our interactive elements such as buttons, tabs and accordions, are not functional using a keyboard. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard
  • some of our interactive elements such as buttons, tabs and accordions do not use appropriate mark-up to identify relationships. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value
  • some drag and drop functionality including some questions in quizzes are not operable using a keyboard. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard
  • some drag and drop functionality including some questions in quizzes are not operable using single pointer without dragging. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.5.7 Dragging Movements
  • some hidden or empty interactive elements receive focus when navigating with a keyboard. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order
  • the labels used on buttons across the website are not always consistent, and some buttons which carry out the same function may have different text. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.2.4 Consistent Identification
  • some interactive elements may trigger a change of context when selected without warning users. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.2.2 On Input
  • some of our buttons and other interactive elements don’t have enough space between them. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.5.8 Target Size (minimum)
  • some of our forms have labels which do not match the accessible name. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.5.3 Label in Name
  • some of our page have parts that are not fully responsive and require both vertical and horizontal scrolling. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.10 Reflow

PDFs & other documents 

  • many PDFs and Word Documents are created by the teaching staff for classes, and may not be accessible. We are working with content producers to ensure that they produce accessible content
  • many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value

How we aim to resolve these issues

We are taking a continuous improvement approach to improving accessibility, working through the issues identified in this statement. We are prioritising issues which have the highest impact on users. We have recently completed a two-year project to improve digital accessibility, during which we greatly reduced the number of instances of each of the points listed above.

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

  • the accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services
  • we don’t plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations
  • Myplace is archived annually and previous years are accessible for reference only. These instances are constituted as an archive and are outside the scope of the accessibility regulations
  • third-party content that’s under someone else’s control that we did not pay for is exempt from accessibility legislation. We report our accessibility concerns to the owners 

What we’re doing to make our website more accessible

We will be continually reviewing the accessibility of our website using automated tools and manual testing procedures where necessary. We will be updating this statement to reflect our progress on rectifying the issues discovered and will provide an outline of any forthcoming resolutions where possible. 

As the significant proportion of content made available via our website is user-created, staff development training on creation of accessible content is promoted, and accessible design is emphasised by the support and administrative team that deliver the service.

We regularly update the underlying platform (Moodle) to ensure the latest accessibility updates are incorporated.

How we test our website

The underlying Moodle platform is regularly reviewed by the Moodle Accessibility Collaboration Group, and accessibility standards are defined. Further Information on this is available via the Moodle Community wiki's Accessibility page.

An accessibility audit was conducted on our website by the Accessibility Project and the Education Technology teams in 2024. This consisted of a manual audit using a browser and various assistive technologies on a sample set of pages that were broadly representative of the website as a whole. This included the website homepage, interactive functionality, search pages and course pages.

Our website is tested regularly using Deque Axe and Wave software. Our content is scanned regularly with the Brickfield Accessibility Plus software for Moodle.

When we design and develop new features for our website we test against a number of checkpoints that help us conform to WCAG 2.2 accessibility standards, and use these as part of our standard testing procedure. 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23 September 2019. It was last updated on 10 August 2025.

The platform and the content were tested automatically using Deque Axe and the Brickfield Accessibility Plus Moodle tool. A dedicated digital accessibility tester carried out a suite of manual tests across various sections of the website, including the homepage and course pages.