This statement does not cover the University of Sunderland’s main website www.sunderland.ac.uk. Please refer to the accessibility statement for www.sunderland.ac.uk if your query concerns that site.
The University’s web estate consists of many related sub-sites with the sunderland.ac.uk domain. Accessibility statements for such sub-sites will be found locally on each site.
The Alumni Association and its website - alumni.sunderland.ac.uk - is managed by the Development & Alumni Office and was re-launched in 2013 to support greater alumni engagement. We want as many people as possible to be able to use the site. For example, that means you should be able to:
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- zoom in up to 300% 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)
You can find useful advice on making your device easier to use by visiting AbilityNet, which provides step-by-step guides to making individual adjustments to your laptop, tablet or smart phone.
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- some parts may not be fully compatible with screen readers
- the text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window
- you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
- most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
- not all media will have a transcript or be subtitled
- some tables do not have row headers
- some images do not have good alternative text or are missing
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:
- Web: IT Portal
- Email: webteam@sunderland.ac.uk (will be copied to alumni@sunderland.ac.uk)
- Call: +44 191 515 2424
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 days.
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: webteam@sunderland.ac.uk.
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).
Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
Find out how to contact us.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
The University of Sunderland Alumni Association 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 is built with Blackbaud NetCommunity, a comprehensive online alumni management system. Blackbaud products are designed and developed in accordance with the internationally recognised Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 Level AA as well as the Section 508 standards in the United States.
A select number of parts meet strict WGAC AA compliance, by way of automated validation, while others meet level A compliance.
Blackbaud NetCommunity parts with Level AA Compliance:
- Anonymous Newsletter Subscription
- Change User ID/Password
- Communication Consent part when used in conjunction with the Donation 2.0 Form (as of BBNC 7.1 SP 4)
- Directory
- Flash Player (Note: This part is deprecated. Adobe has set the end of life for Flash Player for 31st December, 2020.)
- Formatted Text and Images
- Giving History
- Menu
- Navigation Buttons
- Profile Display
- Profile Display (The Education Edge™)
- Profile Form
- Quick Search
- Search
- Targeted Content
- User Email Preferences Form
- User Login
- Volunteer Opportunity
Blackbaud NetCommunity parts with Level A Compliance:
- Class Notes Directory (The Education Edge)
- Discussion Group
- Documents
- Donation 2.0 Form
- Event Registration Form
- Personal Notes
- Profile Form (The Education Edge)
- User Education Profile Form
It is important to note that Blackbaud NetCommunity itself is not inherently compliant or noncompliant. Design decisions made during the construction of this site with Blackbaud NetCommunity impact upon our overall compliance score. Non-compliances and exemptions to our site are listed below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
Navigation and accessing information
Not all page headings contain content and some headings skip a level
It is not possible to use a keyboard to access all the content. We will ensure content can be navigated by keyboard as we review each page.
Some information is conveyed as an image of text rather than as text itself so that it's not compatible with screen readers and other assistive technology. We will ensure content conveyed as an image is replaced by HTML when we review each page.
Some links are not labelled clearly. For example, they do not make sense when taken out of context or they do not contain text. We will correct link text over time as we review each page.
Adjacent links on certain pages go to the same URL
Tables may be used for layout only and their content is not at all tabular in nature
Distinct page regions may not be clearly defined
Contrast
There may not be sufficient colour contrast between font and background colours especially where the text size is very small. We will change colours to ensure sufficient contrast when we review each page.
Media
Some images may not include alternative text. We are working through all images to add these and expect this to be complete by November 2020.
PDFs and other documents
Not all our PDFs and Word documents meet accessibility standards. From July 2020 onwards we are running a series of workshops and campaigns to highlight this issue and train users in how to audit and then improve the accessibility of these documents.
Forms
Some labels may not indicate the purpose of the fields they relate to
Some form controls may not be labelled, some labels may not contain descriptive content and some related controls may not be grouped together.
- 1.1.1 Non-text Content
- 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
- 2.4.6 Headings and Labels
- 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions
Form buttons may not contain descriptive text
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 currently claiming that any accessibility problems would be a disproportionate burden to fix.
Content that's not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).
Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. We will also try to ensure any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards and where we find any that are not accessible we will rectify this as soon as possible.
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. Regulations for PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018.
Third-party content
Our website contains third-party content. We do not have control over, and are not responsible for, the accessibility of this content, but we use reasonable endeavours to work with the third party to improve its accessibility. The problems that may occur include:
- colour contrast issues
- keyboard navigation not functional
- videos with closed captions missing
- links to non-University of Sunderland websites
If you find any of our Alumni resources hard to access, then please contact webteam@sunderland.ac.uk for help.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
- Support, guidance and training process in place for University staff to increase awareness of accessibility and what our responsibilities are.
- From July 2020 onwards we are running a series of workshops and campaigns to highlight the importance of accessibility and train users in how to audit and then improve the accessibility of published content and services.
- We have a rolling programme of updating the content and design of this website in accordance with the guidelines set out by the WCAG and will continue to assess and improve our accessibility based on these guidelines, user testing and user feedback.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 26th October 2020. It was last reviewed on 29th October 2020.
This website was last tested in October 2020. The test was carried out by The University of Sunderland Web Team.
This website is tested weekly using a quality assurance tool to identify accessibility issues.
We tested:
Our website is tested on a regular basis, with a new scan scheduled every seven days using an automated accessibility tool provided by LittleForest. This tool tests all web pages and provides a report on accessibility issues. Manual checks are also performed on a sample of pages on the Alumni website.
Issues are prioritised according to the severity of the impact it may cause, the number of people that may be impacted and the time involved in resolving the issue.