Accessibility Statement for PA-X Tracker website
Website accessibility statement in line with Public Sector Body
(Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018
This accessibility statement applies to https://www.pax.peaceagreements.org/tracker
This website is run by the PeaceRep: the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform team in the School of Law, and Information Services on behalf of The University of Edinburgh. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this application. For example, that means you should be able to:
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- zoom in up to 500% on the website without text spilling off the screen, and 400% on the embedded interactive content (PowerBI embedded reports)
- navigate most of the website using just a keyboard, including the embedded content
- experience no time limit upon use
- navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
We have also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
Customising the website
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability. This is an external site with suggestions to make your computer more accessible:
AbilityNet – My Computer My Way
With a few simple steps you can customise the appearance of our website using your browser settings to make it easier to read and navigate:
Additional information on how to customise our website appearance
If you are a member of University staff or a student, you can use the free SensusAccess accessible document conversion service:
Information on SensusAccess
For more information on how to consumer PowerBI reports using accessibility features, please see: Consumer Power BI reports by using accessibility features
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- Some applications of the system require JavaScript
- It may be difficult to use this site with screen readers
- You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
- Access to all content may not be possible by using the keyboard alone
- Not all colour contrasts meet the recommended Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard
- Some content is only available in PDFs which may not be fully accessible
- Not all content is responsive to re-sizing of browser windows, or fits on mobile devices/tablets
- Some links open new tabs or browser windows without warning
- Some interactive content might not be fully accessible
- Certain components of the tracker have high volumes of data which may require some time to load fully. This loading time could pose challenges for individuals who are in areas with limited internet connectivity.
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format, including accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille, please contact PeaceRep:
- Email: peacerep@ed.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 131 514566
- British Sign Language (BSL) users can contact us via contactSCOTLAND- BSL , the on-line BSL interpreting service.
We will consider your request and get back to you within 5 working days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We are 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 contact the PeaceRep team:
- Email: peacerep@ed.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 131 514566
- British Sign Language (BSL) users can contact us via contactSCOTLAND- BSL , the on-line BSL interpreting service.
We will consider your request and get back to you within 5 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 please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) directly:
Contact details for the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)
The government has produced information on how to report accessibility issues:
Reporting an accessibility problem on a public sector website
Contacting us by phone using British Sign Language
British Sign Language service
contactSCOTLAND-BSL runs a service for British Sign Language users and all of Scotland’s public bodies using video relay. This enables sign language users to contact public bodies and vice versa. The service operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
contactSCOTLAND-BSL service details
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
The University of Edinburgh is committed to making its websites and applications 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 (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
The full guidelines are available at:
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Noncompliance with the accessibility regulations
The following items do not comply with the WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria:
- On some pages, keyboard focus is not visible. For example, in the PA-X Local Peace Agreements Database, keyboard focus is not immediately visible on dropdown menus. 2.4.7 Focus Visible
- It is not possible to access all content using a keyboard alone. For example, on the Covid-19 Ceasefires page, there is a keyboard trap at the end of the timeline functionality and a mouse is required to exit the timeline. 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap
- Data visualisations may not be fully accessible using a keyboard or screen reader. 2.1.1 – Keyboard accessible
- Heading tags are not ordered correctly on all pages. Heading levels are occasionally skipped. 1.3.1: Info and Relationships
- In some places there is not sufficient colour contrast between font and background colours, particularly in the footer. 1.4.3: Contrast (Minimum)
- Not all PDF documents are fully accessible. Most peace agreement text is currently only available as PDFs, but we are working on making alternative formats available (see ‘What we are doing’ section below).
- Some images do not have alternate text. In most cases these are decorative, as in the case of publication covers, or tile icons which have a textual image. Some decorative images may not be hidden in tab order, and may be read out on a screen reader. We plan to add alternative text for all images by June 2024, and when we publish new content we will ensure our images meets accessibility standards. 1.1.1 Non-text Content
- On some pages of the Tracker, information is stored on tooltips such as definition for terms used or further information about the page. These may not be accessible for users who don’t use a mouse. However, none of the information stored in these are essential for functionality of the site. 1.4.12 Content on Hover or Focus
- The actor network component is limited in interactions with keyboard navigation, as nodes cannot be selected to view more information. However, buttons to zoom and links to navigate to other content can be accessible via keyboard commands. 2.1.1 Keyboard
- Some maps, charts and graphs may have some shortcomings, such as tabbing between the elements and descriptive text. Our ambition is to continuously address these issues. 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap
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).
WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value)
We will 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.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We will continue to address the accessibility issues highlighted. Where issues are within our direct control, we will work to provide a significant improvement by November 2023 and aim to resolve all issues by June 2024. We will prioritise the issues we have identified with creating alternative formats for PDF documents with the aim of resolving these as quickly as possible. We will also look to add alt text for all objects on the tracker and ensure the tab order of the objects are suitable for screen readers, with decorative objects hidden. Additionally, we are actively working to optimize the loading performance of all the tracker components, to make our data more accessible to those with a low connection.
While we are in the process of resolving these accessibility issues, or where we are unable, we will ensure reasonable adjustments are in place to make sure no user is disadvantaged. As changes are made, we will continue to review accessibility and retest the accessibility of this website.
Improvements to date (August 2023):
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 18 August 2023. It was last reviewed on 25 August 2023.
This website was tested by the PeaceRep team in August 2023, primarily using Firefox and Chrome browsers. We carried out basic manual testing alongside automated testing using Wave WebAim. The results from Wave WebAim showed 0 errors, 1 contrast error due to the blue links against the white background (which was the default colour for links), and 13 alerts due to the alternative text being similar to the text in the element. These alerts will be prioritised to make the site more accessible as soon as possible.
We tested a sample of pages that include most of the various page formats on this page, including Home, Tracker, Search PA-X, PA-X Gender, PA-X Local, Amnesties, Visualizations, Downloads and About.
We tested:
- Scaling using different resolutions
- Options to customise the interface (magnification, font, background colour et cetera)
- Keyboard-only navigation
- Information conveyed in colour or sound only
- Use with assistive software e.g Read&Write
- Text alternatives for any non-text content