Accessibility statement for Hartpury University and Hartpury College

Hartpury University and Hartpury College are committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. We're continually improving the user experience for everyone, and applying the relevant accessibility standards.

We are committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This statement was prepared on 1 September 2022. It was last reviewed on 1 September 2022.

This website was last tested on 29 August 2022. The test was carried out by Spindogs Ltd.

Feedback and contact information

We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of the Hartpury University and Hartpury College website. Please let us know if you encounter accessibility barriers or if you require information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille. We aim to provide accessible alternatives within a reasonable time where content doesn’t meet the standards and reasonable adjustment has not been made.

University accessibility:

College accessibility:

General website related accessibility:

Address: Hartpury University and Hartpury College, Gloucester, GL19 3BE

We’ll consider your feedback/request and get back to you.

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).

Measures to support accessibility

We take the following measures to ensure accessibility:

  • assign clear accessibility targets and responsibilities.
  • investment in implementation of accessibility technology.

Conformance status

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) define requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities.

It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. Hartpury University and Hartpury College are partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA. Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to the accessibility standard. This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to ‘the non-compliances and exemptions’ listed below.

Limitations and alternatives

Despite our best efforts to ensure accessibility of the Hartpury University and Hartpury College website, there may be some limitations. Below is a description of known limitations, and potential solutions.

Despite our best efforts to ensure accessibility of the Hartpury University and Hartpury College website, there may be some limitations. Below is a description of known limitations, and potential solutions.

Disproportionate burden

  1. Keyboard navigation for cookies notice and submenus: The ‘OK’ button on the cookies notice is not actionable using a keyboard and users cannot keyboard tab to the submenu options. We're in the process of updating this functionality in order to comply without use of cursor. (criterion 2.1.1)
  2. Focus visible: There is no visible keyboard tab focus on the ‘Level of study’ dropdown. The issue has been identified with the plugin the sliders use. We're in the process of identifying an alternative solution for this functionality in order to comply (criterion 2.4.7).
  3. Name, role, value: Images and carousels are missing accessible text. There is a site-wide issue with regards to the alt text function pulling through on banners, sliders, course area items, full width images, and related content items. We're in the process of updating this functionality in order to comply. (criterion 4.1.2)
  4. Page titles and non-text content: PDF documents not containing a document title or the document title is empty, which helps users understand the topic without having to read the entire document or containing images without alt text, which allows screen readers to share the alternative text with the user. We're in the process of updating this functionality in order to comply. (criterion 2.4.2 and 1.1.1)
  5. Info and relationships: For carousel indicator dots for the image sliders, a required ARIA child role is not present. Assistive technologies interpret ARIA parent and child roles to perform accessibility functions and give this structural context to users. We're in the process of updating this functionality in order to comply. (criterion 1.3.1)
  6. Link Purpose (In Context) and Name, Role, Value: This refers to a link in an embedded form where the link doesn’t have discernible text. This is a third part app. We have contacted the app’s developer and are awaiting a response. Once the solution has been identified, we will update this functionality in order to comply. (criterion 2.4.4 and 4.1.2)
  7. Parsing: Web pages where multiple elements referenced with ARIA with the same ID attributes causing misinterpretations of content or functionality for users. We're in the process of updating this functionality in order to comply. (criterion 4.1.1)

In our disproportionate burden assessment, we assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believed that doing so ahead of the deadline would have a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. However, we're working towards conforming to regulation with a plan of development, which we’re expecting to complete by Autumn 2022.

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


PDFs/Word documents

We've identified a number of on-site PDFs/Word documents for user reference.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2020 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

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

When publishing new content or developing new functionality, we’ll make ensure content/development meets accessibility standards.

Assessment approach

We assessed the accessibility of the Hartpury University and Hartpury College website by the following approaches:

  • self-evaluation
  • 3rd party evaluation (Spindogs Ltd)​

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