Blackboard accessibility statement

Blackboard accessibility statement

An accessible copy of this accessibility statement can be downloaded from this link

This accessibility statement applies to De Montfort University’s Virtual Learning Environment (Blackboard) (https://vle.dmu.ac.uk/)

This website is run by De Montfort University. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • 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’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

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

How accessible this website is:

De Monfort University uses the Blackboard Learn virtual learning environment. This third party product was designed and developed in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility (WCAG) Guidelines 2.1 Level AA.

Blackboard provide  information about the accessibility and compliance of Blackboard Learn.

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

  • some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams do not have captions
  • some links are identified by colour only

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille please email disability@dmu.ac.uk 

We will consider your request and get back to you in 2 working days.

DMU staff and students are able to manage their own conversions to and from a range of format types using the ‘make it accessible’ tool available through the library website.

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:.

Neil Stokes – neil.stokes@dmu.ac.uk

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

De Montfort University 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.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Some links on some pages are currently only identified by colour – WCAG2.1 success criterion 1.4.1
  • Some heading tags on some webpages are missing text – WCAG2.1 success criterion 1.3.1
  • In some instances HTML is used to format content rather than CSS – WCAG2.1 success criterion 1.3.1
  • On some pages WAI/ARIA landmarks are used but not all content is included and on some pages there are two instances of landmarks with the same name – WCAG2.1 success criterion 1.3.1

Blackboard Learn is a third party platform and Blackboard provide their own accessibility compliance statement.

Disproportionate burden

Not applicable

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

PDFs and other documents

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.

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

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

 Microsoft Teams meeting may be used for live synchronous teaching and this is enabled to provide live automated captioning if required.

The precision and availability of these automated captions is governed by the Microsoft corporation.

Where Blackboard Collaborate Ultra synchronous sessions are used there is no option for automated live captions available at this time.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We tested our virtual learning environment using an automated website content testing tool to test compliance with WCAG 2.0 Level AA. We conducted further manual tests to assess to WCAG 2.1 AA.

Blackboard conducts regular audits of their software to ensure quality expectations are met and maintained.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 01/09/2020. It was last reviewed on 24/09/2020.

This website was last tested on 01/09/2020. The test was carried out by De Montfort University staff.