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Accessibility Statement

The University of Oxford is committed to providing an accessible web presence that gives members of the public and members of the University community full access to University information, courses and activities offered publicly through the web. Our Equality Policy outlines our commitment to a culture which ‘maintains a working, learning and social environment in which the rights and dignity of all its staff and students are respected’.

 

This statement applies to the University of Oxford, BioEscalator website - https://www.bioescalator.ox.ac.uk/

 

Our Aims 

This website is run by the BioEscalator Events and Communications Officer. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

In order to ensure that all of our visitors can use our website, these pages aim to meet Level-AA standard of WCAG 2.2. This includes elements such as:

  • Alt text for all images and providing non-visual alternatives where appropriate
  • All essential audiovisual information is captioned, described as necessary or provided in alternative formats
  • Content can be navigated with just a keyboard or speech recognition tools
  • The website can be used with a screen reader
  • Content is structured, ordered and labelled appropriately

Guidance is available for editors and moderators of this site to help them maintain accessibility standards.

 

Making changes to your device or system

AbilityNet has advice on making your devices easier to use if you have a disability. In addition, major operating systems produce the following guidance:

 

How accessible this website is 

We are aware that some parts of our website are not fully accessible. These include:

  • Not all images have a meaningful text alternative
  • Some images include text as part of the image
  • Some text and images have low contrast levels
  • Not all page titles are unique or clearly indicate the page’s topic or purpose
  • Some link text isn’t meaningful out of context
  • Some links to external sites open in a new browser window and some open in the same browser window
  • Some audio content is not accompanied by audio description or text alternative
  • Some video content does not have fully synchronised captions
  • Some video content that contains visual information is not accompanied by audio description or text alternative
  • Some video or animation content may contain content that flashes more than three times a second
  • You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • When CSS styling is removed from some page, the content may not be in logical order
  • There are instances of headings being used incorrectly, disrupting page hierarchy
  • Some pages use shape, size, colour, or location to communicate instructions or information
  • Older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

We are working to address areas where our accessibility needs improvement. Please see our 'Known issues' page for more details.

 

Feedback and Contact Information

If you need information on this website in a different format, please email the BioEscalator Events and Communications Officer or write to us at:


BioEscalator Team

BioEscalator, Innovation Building

Old Road Campus, Roosevelt Drive

Oxford, OX3 7FZ, United Kingdom

 

We will consider your request and get back to you in 14 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, please email the BioEscalator Events and Communications Officer or write to us at:

BioEscalator Team

BioEscalator, Innovation Building

Old Road Campus, Roosevelt Drive

Oxford, OX3 7FZ, United Kingdom

 

Other accessibility resources

If you'd like more information about accessibility and resources for students, staff and visitors in Oxford more generally, please visit the University of Oxford's Equality and Diversity pages.

If you're looking for information on building accessibility, please try the Access Guide or the University's interactive map.

 

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 BioEscalator, University of Oxford, is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliance and exemptions listed on our 'Known Issues page'.

 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We want to provide the best possible experience for all our website visitors. To achieve this, we will:

  • Fix known issues
  • Check all new features in the Haiku Content Management System (CMS), which is used to create this website, for accessibility before they are made available
  • Check all new content for accessibility
  • Train all content editors on accessibility
  • Carry out periodic accessibility checks

 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 25 October 2024. It was last reviewed on 18 March 2026.

This website was last tested in October 2024. 

The test was conducted by the BioEscalator Events and Communications Officer using a carefully selected sample of pages and content types. The CMS has been audited for accessibility by the suppliers and the BioEscalator Events and Communications Officer.

The pages were checked manually using a combination of the following methods:

  • Checked against WCAG 2.1 guidelines, with a focus on the items in the Gov.uk’s WCAG 2.1 Primer Checklist.  
  • Viewed without style sheets 
  • Viewed on a small screen 
  • Checked using the WebAim’s Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool