Accessibility statement for Artefact

This website is run by the Journalism and Publishing department of the School of Media at London College of Communication, part of the University of the Arts London (UAL). This statement applies to the magazine website on www.artefactmagazine.com. Other websites and browser-based systems run by UAL have their own accessibility statements.

This website uses HTML 5 (HyperText Mark-up Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to render content. We have also used other technologies including JavaScript on certain areas of the website. We have also added an accessibility plug-in which you can activate additional features such as changing font size and switching to high-contrast pages.

We commit to ensuring this website is as accessible as possible and we want as many people as possible to be able to use it. This means that you should be able to:

  • access the website regardless of the device and browser you are using;
  • 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)

We have also tried to make the website text as easy to understand as possible although we recognise we have more work to do on this.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible is this website?

We know that some parts of the website are not fully accessible:

  • some search results cannot be refined by subject using a keyboard;
  • our PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software, however there are very few of these on the site;
  • old video content is missing captions and sub-titles;
  • animations on the site play automatically and loop and they do not have controls to pause or stop them altogether;
  • on some pages you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in an alternative, more accessible format please contact the website administrator Russell Merryman by e-mail.

Please include details of the content you need and the required format or the service you are trying to access. We will then work with the team who own the content or the service to get you what you need.

We aim to provide you with an initial response within two working days and will provide clear information about how we will deal with your request.

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: Russell Merryman.

We aim to provide you with an initial response within two working days and will provide clear information about how we will deal with your enquiry or complaint.

If you feel we have not answered your enquiry or complaint satisfactorily, please contact us again. We will escalate your enquiry or complaint to the programme director, Simon Hinde, who will work with the team who provides the content or the service to get you a response.

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

To contact us by phone, or to arrange a visit to our offices please please call 0207 514 6500; our offices at at the London College of Communication, Elephant and Castle, S1 6SB.

More information about accessing our buildings is available from AccessAble.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

UAL 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:

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

  • Some images may not have alternative (alt) text descriptions while other decorative and spacer images may not have null alternative text. This fails WCAG Success Criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A). We are currently working to add alt text to all of our images. Some of the issues with alt text are due to the design of the site, a new design is due to go live in October 2020 which will fix this problem;
  • The colour contrast of the text on our course pages does not meet the minimum required colour contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text. This fails WCAG Success Criterion 1.4.3: Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA). Pages are currently being redesigned and the new design is due to go live in October 2020 which will fix this problem.

Content that is not within scope of the accessibility regulations

  • None of the documents published on our website before September 23, 2018 are accessible. We are not required to make these documents accessible as they are not needed for active administrative processes. However there are only a small number of these.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We will be re-designing and re-platforming the site shortly. As part of that re-design we will work to ensure that the designs we create meet the WCAG 2.1 AA guideline.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on September 16, 2019. It was last reviewed on October 19, 2021.

This website was last tested on October 19, 2021. The test was carried out by Russell Merryman.

We used the following automated accessibility tools, assistive technology and manual testing methods to test a sample of pages of our website. These included:

  • Siteimprove Accessibility Checker
  • Axe Accessibility
  • Manually auditing the alt text of all images
  • Manually checking colour contrast of text

The selection of pages we tested were:

  • The homepage
  • A story page
  • The search page

An updated accessibility report for the site will also be provided when the new design has been launched.