The Data Lab

Accessibility Statement for The Data Lab website

Website accessibility statement inline with Public Sector Body (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018

This accessibility statement applies to https://www.thedatalab.com/

This website is run by The Data Lab, University of Edinburgh. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this application. For example, that means the website:

  • Allows you to zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen
  • Has acceptable colour/contrast ratios for text
  • Provides keyboard accessible navigation
  • Provides skip to content links at the top of the page

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand. However, some of our content is technical, and we use technical terms where there is no easier wording we could use without changing what the text means.

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

If you are a member of University staff or a student, you can use the free SensusAccess accessible document conversion service:

Information on SensusAccess

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • you may not be able to access all content by using the keyboard alone
  • a transcript is not available for our podcasts
  • some PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
  • some third party software widgets are not fully accessible
  • not all of the images have alternative or descriptive text

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 us using the details below. We’ll try and respond as quickly as possible but this will be no more than 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:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 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

Visiting us in person

If you are visiting us in person, please visit AccessAble for information on accessibility at Bayes Centre. Among other accessibility facilities, we:

  • have automatic front doors and lifts
  • have level access
  • provide an Assistive listening / hearing enhancement system at Reception
  • have an accessible, gender neutral toilet

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:

  • Not all non-text content presented to users has alternative text
    1.1.1 – Non-text Content
  • Not all prerecorded audio-only or video-only media will have alternative media that presents equivalent information e.g. audio track with description of the action in a video with no sound
    1.2.1 –  Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded)
  • Some sections of the website skip heading sizes, making the logical structure of the webpage difficult to interpret for screen readers. 
    1.3.1 – Info and Relationships
    1.3.2 – Meaningful Sequence
  • It is not possible for all form fields to be programmatically determined. This means that when using auto-fill functionality for forms not all fields will identify the meaning for input data accurately
    1.3.5 – Identify Input Purpose
  • Not all our PDF documents meet accessibility standards. It is not possible to programmatically determine the correct reading sequence of some of our PDFs. There is no text alternative to information presented in some of our PDFs. We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages by May 2021. We will also try to ensure any new PDFs we publish will meet accessibility standards and where we find any that are not accessible we will rectify this as soon as possible. 
    1.1.1 – Non-text Content
    1.3.2 – Meaningful Sequence
  • Google reCAPTCHA causes an accessibility error due to a missing label. It is possible to interact with and solve the reCAPTCHA using a screen reader. Also using the audio test to solve additional verification works with a screen reader. It worked especially well using the Chrome browser. We are unable to improve this further as this is third party software and not within our control.

Unless specified otherwise, a complete solution, or significant improvement, will be in place for those items within our control by July 2021.

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 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)

Some of our PDFs are essential to providing our services. We are assessing the accessibility of our PDFs and plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages by July 2021. We will also try to ensure any new PDFs 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. For example, we do not plan to fix archive material such as news articles published before 2018.

Regulations for PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We will continue to address the accessibility issues highlighted, alongside working to deliver a solution or suitable workaround. Unless specified otherwise, a complete solution or significant improvement will be in place for those items within our control by June 2021.

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.

Accessibility improvements

Accessibility improvements, bug fixes and development work to fix issues will be recorded to keep a record of work completed.

Accessibility improvements for The Data Lab website

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 12th August 2020. It was last reviewed on 1st February 2021.

This website was last tested in August 2020. The test was carried out by the Marketing and Communications team. Automated testing using Little Forest, and also using WAVE WebAim was undertaken and a site wide manual inspection was carried out. The website has been submitted to have an in depth manual test carried out by the Disability Information team, with results and an implementation of any recommendations expected by July 2021.