Accessibility statement for University of East London (UEL) website

Last published date: 2 March 2026

This accessibility statement applies to the University of East London (UEL) website, www.uel.ac.uk.

This website is run by UEL. 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 using browser or device settings;
  • 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; and
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA, Narrator and VoiceOver).

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

My Computer My Way by AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability, and the AT Hive can help you find assistive technologies that work for you.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. You can see a full list of any issues we currently know about in the “Non-accessible content” section of this statement.

  • Some elements do not receive adequate focus visibility, or the focus order is not logical.
  • Some images do not have appropriate alternative text.
  • Some video content may not have accessible text alternatives such as captions, audio descriptions, or transcripts.
  • Some Portable Document Format (PDF) documents are not fully accessible.
  • Some pages do not have a logical or hierarchical heading structure.
  • Some form fields are not appropriately associated with their labels or grouped as related fields.
  • Some interactive elements do not convey the appropriate role or state.
  • Some content and functionality rely on colour alone to convey information.
  • There are links and buttons that have ambiguous names.

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please email the Digital Team at digitalcontent@uel.ac.uk or (internal staff) log a ticket with the Digital team to report an accessibility problem.

If you need information on this website in a different format, like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please email the Digital Team at digitalcontent@uel.ac.uk or (internal staff) log a ticket with the Digital team.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 14 days.

Read tips on contacting organisations about inaccessible websites.

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 East London 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

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 and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Images

Some images use descriptive alt text where they should be marked as decorative, some use unhelpful alt text where they should have more meaningful alt text, and some are missing alt text entirely. This means that people using a screen reader may hear text that is not necessary or not meaningful, or miss meaningful information. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A).

Video

Videos are present which use auto-generated captions which do not accurately represent the spoken content or that are not synchronised with the audio. This means that people who rely on an alternative to audio information may have difficulty understanding the content of some videos. This fails WCAG 1.2.2 Captions (Pre-recorded) (Level A). 

Some videos are present that feature meaningful visual information that is not described by audio or a media alternative such as a transcript. This means people who rely on information in alternative formats may miss key information. There is also meaningful text within videos that has insufficient colour contrast. This fails WCAG 1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Pre-recorded) (Level A), 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Pre-recorded) (Level A), 1.2.5 Audio Description (Pre-recorded) (Level AA) and 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA).

Structure 

Headings across the website are not always semantically identified or set at the right level. Similarly, some list items are not semantically identified or incorrectly structured. In some cases, text is incorrectly identified as a heading or a list. This means that screen reader users may not be able to determine the layout of the page and quickly navigate to different sections. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A).

There is some content that is included or hidden from the reading order inappropriately. This means screen reader users may find it difficult to understand how content is organised. This fails WCAG 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence (Level A).

In some cases, there is content or functionality that is cut off when viewed at smaller zoom sizes. This means that some users may miss out on meaningful information or functionality. This fails WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow (Level AA).

There are unnecessary or invalid markups used across the website and in specific components, such as the accordion component and the tabs component. This may cause unexpected issues and poor experience for assistive technology users. This fails WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A).

Keyboard and navigation

The focus indicator for the tabs component on course pages is not clearly visible. This means that keyboard users may not understand their location on pages when they reach these elements. This fails WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible (Level AA) in combination with 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (AA). 

The focus order is sometimes illogical, particularly in our Gecko forms. Hidden elements sometimes also receive keyboard focus and focus is not always managed correctly where dynamic content is provided. This means that keyboard users may find navigating some parts of our website unpredictable. This fails WCAG 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A). 

Links and buttons 

There are some buttons which are not named or that perform the same action on multiple pages but are inconsistently named. In some cases, the button’s current state is not correctly conveyed. This could cause uncertainty about the outcome of using them. This fails WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A) and 3.2.4 Consistent Identification (Level AA).

There are also links and buttons that contain other links or buttons. Nesting interactive elements is invalid markup and, despite the use of attributes to attempt to mitigate any issues, there is no guarantee that these links will work as expected for all users. This fails WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A).

Forms

We are aware of some recurring issues with our forms, particularly those provided by the third-party vendor, Gecko Engage.

The focus order is sometimes illogical, and hidden elements sometimes receive keyboard focus. This means that keyboard users may find navigating some of our forms unpredictable. This fails WCAG 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A).

There are some fields that are not associated with their label or related fields that are not grouped. This may make the purpose of these fields unclear for screen reader users. Similarly, there are some headings that are not semantically identified. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A).

There are links, error messages and instructions that do not have sufficient contrast with their background. There are some visual state indicators that do not have sufficient contrast with adjacent colours. This means people who require items to be easy to perceive may miss important information. This fails WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA) and 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (Level AA).

Required fields are not always identified in text or sufficiently descriptive. Some states and errors rely on colour alone, or are not identified by assistive technologies. This means that some people may find it difficult to know how to complete certain fields or recover from errors. This fails WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A), 1.4.1 Use of Colour (Level A) and 4.1.3 Status Messages (Level AA).

There are some custom form fields that are not built to the required web specifications or that do not identify where there are options present in languages different from the page language. This may make these controls difficult to operate or understand for screen reader users. This fails WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A) and 3.1.2 Language of Parts (Level AA).

PDFs 

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with course specifications and information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. We are currently working on fixing these essential documents or replacing them with accessible HTML web pages. In June 2025, we also introduced a facility to print or download a large text version of our course pages. 

We know that incorrect tags have been used in some PDF documents. This means that people may not be able to navigate effectively through the PDF document, particularly if they are screen reader users. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A).

We know that PDFs may not have a document title. This means that people may encounter the document file path as the title, which may cause confusion or difficulty, particularly if they are screen reader users. This fails WCAG 2.4.2 Page Titled (Level A).

Office for Students (OfS) DiscoverUni widget

The DiscoverUni widget is an Office for Students (OfS) mandated component that higher education institutions in the UK must display on course pages. We know there are accessibility issues with this widget.  A new version of the widget was released in 2025, which addressed several of the issues with the previous widget. However, our own testing has identified that the new widget still has several issues:

Several headings use inappropriate heading levels, and non-headings are identified as headings. This miscommunicates the widget content in the hierarchy of the page and may make the structure of the page difficult to understand for screen reader users. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A).

At smaller screen sizes, there are pagination controls when the widget content is split over multiple slides. These controls rely on colour to indicate the currently selected slide. Unselected pagination items have less than 3:1 contrast ratio with the adjacent background. This fails WCAG 1.4.1 Use of Colour (Level A) and 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (Level AA).

The widget does not fully support text spacing styles. At smaller screen sizes, when text spacing styles are applied, content and functionality is cut off or lost. This may prevent some users from being able to understand and use the widget. This fails WCAG 1.4.12 Text Spacing (Level AA).

There are meaningful icons that have generic text alternatives. Their purpose may be unclear to screen reader users. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A).

There are links that have very verbose accessible names, impacting understanding. This may make the links’ purpose difficult to identify for screen reader users. This fails WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level AA).

Futr Chatbot

We are aware of several issues with the chatbot impacting the user experience. There are buttons and content that are unavailable at smaller zoom sizes, and text, interface items and focus indicators that have insufficient contrast. This means people may find it difficult to operate or understand some parts of the chatbot interface. This fails WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow (Level AA), 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA), and 1.4.11 Non-Text Contrast (Level AA).

There are also icons with unclear alt text, buttons that have ambiguous names or missing roles and states, headings and lists that are not semantically identified, and languages different from the page language that are not identified. This means screen reader users may not always be able to determine the layout of the interface or how to operate it. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A), 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A), 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A), and 3.1.2 Language of Parts (Level AA).

The Futr Chatbot widget, when open, obscures focused page content when a user is browsing via keyboard and does not provide a mechanism to easily reveal the obscured content. This means that keyboard users may not see what item has keyboard focus on the page.  This fails WCAG 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) (Level AA).
We are actively collaborating with the vendor to improve the accessibility of the chatbot. 

UniBuddy student engagement platform

We are aware of a handful of issues with our Unibuddy integration, including inappropriate heading levels, tabs components that are missing the necessary semantics, required fields that are not identified in text, and user interface elements that have insufficient colour contrast.

This may make it difficult for some users to understand how content is structured or operate certain functions. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A), 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A), 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A) and 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (Level AA).

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Accessibility is built into how we plan, design and update our website. We have a dedicated Digital Accessibility Specialist within our Digital Team, working closely with our UX Designers and Content Editors to consider accessibility throughout the design and delivery process. We use an agile approach, which allows us to regularly test improvements, define accessibility requirements early, and address issues as part of our normal development work. We also work with colleagues across the organisation to support accessible content practices.

Alongside this, we are introducing an atomic design system as part of a wider brand refresh. Accessibility is being considered at every stage of this work, from core styles and reusable components through to full page layouts. This approach helps us improve accessibility consistently across the site and reduces the risk of issues being introduced as new features and content are developed.

We are aware that some areas of our website, such as older video content and downloadable documents, require further improvement. We are reviewing this content to determine what should be removed, replace or updated, and are addressing these as part of our ongoing accessibility work.

We are working through this list of issues according to priority. All issues will be included in the Digital Team’s business-as-usual work for improvement as soon as possible. We are also collaborating with our third-party suppliers to improve the accessibility of their products where appropriate.

The issues are prioritised as follows:

  • High priority: issues that prevent users from completing tasks, or that affect site-wide components and templates (e.g., header)
  • Medium priority: issues that make tasks difficult or frustrating, or that affect reusable components used across multiple pages (e.g., accordion component)
  • Low priority: issues that have a limited impact on users, or that affect individual page elements (content that is unique to a page)

If you find an issue that we have yet to identify, please contact us using one of the routes described in the ‘Reporting accessibility problems with this website’ section of this statement.

Disproportionate burden

At this time, we have not made any disproportionate burden claims.

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

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.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

3rd party content 

Some of our services include third-party content, which we have no control over, such as: 

  • links to non-UEL websites,
  • content hosted on other websites, such as social media sites,
  • documents which are sent to us and uploaded. 

Regarding documents specifically: some documents on this website are provided by third parties (such as regulators or government departments) and are required to be published under our statutory obligations.

These documents are not created by us, we have no control over their format or accessibility, and there are no alternative formats available. In line with sector guidance (e.g. from Jisc and Lexdis), we consider these to fall under third-party content exemptions. Within our obligations under the Equality Act 2010, we will provide accessible versions on request where feasible.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to manage these kinds of content, but if you have a problem with any of the content hosted on this website, please contact us using the methods above and we will try to help.

Video content 

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. We also have some existing pre-recorded video content that was published before the 23 September 2020. This content is also exempt from the regulations and will be phased out over time. All new video content we produce will have appropriate captions, transcripts and audio descriptions as necessary.

Online maps 

Our website includes the use of online maps to show certain geographical information. These are not used for navigational purposes and are exempt under the regulations. If you require the information presented in an online map in a different format, please contact us to discuss alternative formats.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 17 October 2022. It was last reviewed on 06 February 2026. 

This website was last tested on 06 February 2026 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. The test was carried out by the UEL Digital Team. A sample of webpages were tested and covered key user journeys, as well as main templates used on the website. Testing was completed using a combination of automated, manual, and assistive technology tests.