Accessibility statement for Wallace Lab
Website accessibility statement inline with Public Sector Body (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018
This accessibility statement applies to: https://www.wallacelab.bio/
This website is run by the School of Biological Sciences at 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:
· Navigate to most of the content by keyboard only
· Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software (including Dragon NaturallySpeaking)
· Use the website without encountering any time limits
· Zoom in most content up to 400% with reflow
· Change page colours using browser settings
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
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:
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
· There are some low colour contrasts
· There is text on top of patterned
· There are moving elements that user could not stop or pause
· Keyboard navigation order could be improved
· Keyboard focus indicator is not always visible
· Some alternative texts need to be improved
· There is information conveyed only by colour e.g. links
· Links do not always have meaningful hypertext
· Some heading levels are missed
· Pop ups open without alerting the user this will happen
· There is text as an image
· The site is not fully compatible with assistive software e.g. JAWS
· There was video content that did not have captions, transcripts or video descriptions
· There was a pop-up informing user about links opening a new tab
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format, including accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille:
· Email: biology@ed.ac.uk
· Postal address: Roger Land Building (1.58), Alexander Crum Brown Road, The King’s Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3FF.
· British Sign Language (BSL) users can contact us via Contact Scotland BSL, the on-line BSL interpreting service.
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 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:
· Email: biology@ed.ac.uk
· Postal address: Roger Land Building (1.58), Alexander Crum Brown Road, The King’s Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3FF.
· British Sign Language (BSL) users can contact us via Contact Scotland BSL, the on-line BSL interpreting service.
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
Contact Scotland 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 from 8.00am to 12.00am, 7 days a week.
Contact Scotland 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.
Compliance Status
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
The full guidelines are available at:
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard
Non accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
The following items to not comply with the WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria:
· Not all non-text content has suitable alternative text
Not all video content has captions or captions that identify all speakers as well as noting other significant sounds, e.g., laughter
o 1.2.2 - Captions (Prerecorded)
Not all video content has audio descriptions or media alternatives
Some heading levels are skipped
There may not be sufficient colour contrast between font and background colours, especially where the text size is small
Information is sometimes conveyed by colour alone e.g. links are not underlined be default
There are cases where information is conveyed as an image of text rather than as text itself
There are moving elements that cannot be stopped or paused by the user
Focus order is not always logical
There are some occurrences of badly formatted links either with text that is not descriptive enough, e.g., click here
It is not always clear where the user has reached via keyboard navigation
· There is a pop up that informs users about a link opening in a new tab, however, this pop up appears without warning
Not all content may be robust enough that it can be interpreted by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.
We aim to improve our websites accessibility on a regular and continuous basis. See the section below ('What we're doing to improve accessibility') on how we are improving our site accessibility.
We are working towards solving these problems and expect several improvements by October 2026. The majority of the website is within our control. We work in conjunction with a supplier (Kaye + Co.) that hosts the site in a third-party system Squarespace. There are elements of Squarespace that are outwith our control and we will liaise with the supplier to work on making improvements to the site for those items out with our control.
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
At this time, we believe no content is outwith the scope of the accessibility regulations.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We will continue to address and make adequate improvements to the accessibility issues highlighted. The majority of the website is within our control. We work in conjunction with a supplier (Kaye + Co.) that hosts the site in a third-party system Squarespace. There are elements of Squarespace that are outwith our control and we will liaise with the supplier to work on making improvements to the site for those items out with our control. Unless specified otherwise, a complete solution or significant improvement will be in place by October 2026.
While we are in the process of resolving these accessibility issues, 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.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 19th of September 2025. It was last reviewed on 27th October 2025.
The website was last tested in September 2025. The testing was carried out by Disability Information Team at the University of Edinburgh using both automated and manual methods. The site was tested on a PC, primarily using Microsoft Edge alongside Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.
Recent world-wide usage levels survey for different screen readers and browsers shows that Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge are increasing in popularity and Google Chrome is now the favoured browser for screen readers:
WebAIM: Screen Reader User Survey
The aforementioned three browsers have been used in certain questions for reasons of breadth and variety.
We ran automated testing using AXE (Google Chrome extension) and then manual testing that included:
Spell check functionality;
Scaling using different resolutions and reflow;
Options to customise the interface (magnification, font, background colour, etc);
Keyboard navigation and keyboard traps;
Data validation;
Warning of links opening in new tab or window;
Information conveyed in the colour or sound only;
Flashing, moving or scrolling text;
Use with screen reading software (for example JAWS);
Assistive software (TextHelp Read and Write, Windows Magnifier, ZoomText, Dragon Naturally Speaking, TalkBack and VoiceOver);
Tooltips and text alternatives for any non-text content;
Time limits;
Compatibility with mobile accessibility functionality (Android and iOS);
Any drag functionality and alternatives;
Consistent help function;
No need to re-enter data already submitted;
Any cognitive tests.