Accessibility statement for EcoOnline Health and Safety Management System

This accessibility statement applies to the EcoOnline Health and Safety management system online platform.

This platform houses the Universities Health and Safety incident reporting and investigation process, action management, risk assessment, DSE assessment, inspections, checklists and audit function. EcoOnline is a third-party software solution

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

zoom in up to 200% 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

We also try to make the content 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

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

Some key actions and controls can’t be used without a mouse, making it hard for people who rely on keyboards or other assistive technology to complete tasks. For example, those who use keyboard-only to navigate will not be able to access the main sections of the system from the main landing page.
Date and time pickers are hard to understand or use with assistive tools, preventing some users from entering required information.
The layout doesn’t adjust well when zoomed in or on small screens, so users need to scroll sideways and may lose access to important actions.
The order in which items are highlighted when navigating isn’t consistent, making it confusing to those who use keyboard-only navigation or screen readers.
There is no clear focus on some clickable items, so users with limited vision or those using keyboard-only may not know where they are on the page.
Some buttons only show icons without clear labels, making their purpose unclear for screen reader users; some screen readers detect them as graphics only.
Form fields, radio buttons, and scoring tools may have unclear instructions and don’t all have accessible labels, which makes it hard for users with assistive technology to understand what information is needed.
Dropdown menus don’t clearly show their status or selected option, so users relying on screen readers or other tools may not know what’s chosen or available.
Forms with conditional/contextual content, e.g. when additional questions appear based on a previous answer, do not provide any contextual cues or adjust focus, so could be unusable for some assistive technology users.
Information Icons/Tooltips provide further information that cannot be read by assistive technologies or accessed via the keyboard-only navigation.
Completing tasks in pop-up windows like Add Action, Add Attachment, Delete Records could be challenging or impossible for some assistive technology users, as the pop-ups do not announce themselves and do not adjust focus to them.
Some error messages aren’t clearly linked to the right fields and may disappear too quickly, so users don’t know what went wrong or what to fix.
Some text, tables and lists do not have logical structuring, so assistive technology users can’t navigate easily between sections.
Some text and visual elements don’t have enough contrast to be easily seen.

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, contact us via Email at safetyoffice@lancaster.ac.uk. We will consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

If you are struggling to use the system using keyboard only, screen reader or other assistive technology, please contact us via Email safetyoffice@lancaster.ac.uk for assistance.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, please email safetyoffice@lancaster.ac.uk.

What to do if your problem isn’t dealt with satisfactorily

If you have contacted us about an accessibility problem (e.g. because you needed information in a different format, or you think we're not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations), but you feel that this has not been dealt with satisfactorily, we want to know.

The first stage would be to raise your concern informally. The aim of this stage is to achieve a quick and easy solution for you. It would be appropriate to take the concern through the relevant contact listed above for reporting an accessibility problem.

But if we do not deal with your concern satisfactorily, you can take it through to a formal complaint. See our Concerns, complaints and enforcement information.

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

Lancaster 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 not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard. The non-compliances are listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Keyboard Navigation and Focus Management

Many controls—including dashboard cards, icon buttons, hazard/task actions, and map selectors—are not reachable or operable using a keyboard.
Focus order is inconsistent across dynamic panels, lists, and modals.
Several interactive elements have no visible focus indicator.

Failing WCAG success criteria: 2.1.1 Keyboard (A), 2.4.3 Focus Order (A), 2.4.7 Focus Visible (AA), 2.4.11 Focus Appearance (AA).

Missing Labels, Role & Programmatic Names

Icon-only actions (add, edit, delete, lightning actions) generally lack accessible names.
Form inputs, radio groups, assessor lookups, and scoring widgets are missing correctly associated labels.
Dropdowns and combo boxes do not provide role, state, or value updates.

Failing WCAG success criteria: 1.1.1 Non-Text Content (A), 1.3.1 Info & Relationships (A), 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A)

Screen Reader Compatibility Failures

Date and time pickers cannot be understood or operated by screen reader users.
Dynamic blocks (conditional questions, hazard expansions, upload panels) appear without announcement.
Modals do not announce themselves as dialogs and do not hide background content.

Failing WCAG success criteria: 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A), 1.3.1 Info & Relationships (A), 4.1.3 Status Messages (AA)

Low-Vision & Reflow Barriers

Several text, icon, and focus states fail colour-contrast minimums.
The interface does not reflow at 200% zoom or 320px width; horizontal scrolling is required and key actions disappear.
Focus states may be visually obscured by expanding panels or modal overlays.

Failing WCAG success criteria: 1.4.3 Contrast Minimum (AA), 1.4.10 Reflow (AA), 2.4.11 Focus not obscured (AA)

Error Handling & Validation Issues

Error messages are not associated programmatically with form fields.
Errors may fade before assistive technologies detect them.
No consolidated error summary is provided for long forms.

Failing WCAG success criteria: 3.3.1 Error Identification (A), 3.3.3 Error Suggestion (AA), 4.1.3 Status Messages (AA)

Status Messages & Live Announcements

Pagination updates, “Load More” actions, and dynamic content changes do not provide live announcements.
Users relying on screen readers receive no feedback when data changes.

Failing WCAG success criteria: 4.1.3 Status Messages (AA)

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

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.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We will continue to work with the supplier, EcoOnline, to address the accessibility issues highlighted and deliver a solution or suitable workaround. As EcoOnline is a third-party system, we have limited ability to make any changes ourselves. EcoOnline has been informed that improvements to accessibility are a priority for Lancaster University, and accessibility will be assessed as part of future contract negotiations/renewals.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 6 January 2026.

This website was last tested on 28 November 2025. The test was carried out by a third-party contracted by Lancaster University to undertake an audit on a selection of pages on the incident reporting and investigation module, the risk assessment module, a representative assessment module, the DSE module and the action tracking module. Testing tools included:

Automated testing (axe DevTools, WAVE, BrowserStack accessibility tools).
Assistive technology testing using NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver (macOS/iOS), TalkBack (Android), ZoomText, and keyboard-only navigation.
User-journey testing focusing on incident reporting, risk assessment creation, DSE workflows, and assessments/audits.
Component-level analysis to identify systemic issues across shared UI controls.