Accessibility statement for Lancaster IT Help Centre

This accessibility statement applies to IT Help Centre and primarily focuses on the customer-facing side where students and staff request support. There is a sub-section that addresses the ‘back-end’ area of the website that only ISS staff have access to.

The IT Help Centre is created using JIRA Service Management Data Centre which is a third-party application run by Atlassian and hosted at Lancaster University. As such, we have limited control over the changes we can make to it.

Atlassian provide detailed information about their application and its accessibility through a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) on their website: Jira Service Management Data Center VPAT. This is a technical testing document and will not exactly match Lancaster University’s version as we host this tool.

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 content cannot be accessed fully with a keyboard.
  • Some content does not respect individual preferences that people have set up on their computer, for example, high contrast mode.
  • Some images have been marked as meaningful when they should be decorative, and these meaningfully marked images do not all have alternate text.

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:

  • Via the online Help Centre(staff and students only)
  • Call our IT Service Desk on +44 (0)1524 510987

Well consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

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 contact us via the online Help Centre (staff and students only).

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

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 partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content for customer-facing section

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Colour use

  • When you have a request open, the date for the change of status of the ticket (e.g. ‘Closed’, ‘Complete’ etc) does not have sufficient contrast with the box it sits in.
  • Sometimes colour is the only indicator of information, for example, the links under Popular Answers on the Home page are only shown that they are links via their colour.
  • Some high contrast settings (in browsers or from a computer) are not respected.
  • There is an invisible content in the footer available to screen readers for extra support. This is not regular behaviour for support and may confuse those with partial vision as a screen reader will read something that can’t be seen at all.

This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion 1.41. Use of Colour and 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum).

Images

  • Some images have been marked as meaningful when they should be decorative and these meaningfully marked images do not all have alternate text (alt-text). The alt-text that is there is the same content as the link following the icon, which effectively reads the same content twice.

This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content.

Navigation

  • You cannot access the Profile menu with a keyboard, which means the My Requests area can’t be directly accessed without a mouse or a direct link.
  • Horizontal scroll bar displayed when content is resized to 400% on some pages. This makes the fillable forms difficult to use.

This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion 1.4.10 Reflow and 2.1.1 Keyboard.

Text and content

Text
  • Text doesn’t consistently resize from personal preference/browser settings. Notably all the content in the forms from the Home page.
  • Instructional text sometimes relies on visual information either through description only to locate and identify the item, e.g., ‘Search above’.
  • Some text appears visually bold but is not tagged appropriately as such.

This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion 1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics and 1.4.12 Text Spacing.

Headings
  • All the category headings on the Home page (for example 'Email' and 'Software/Apps') do not receive visible focus despite being selected. This means that it not clear when navigating with a keyboard what item is selected. This also means that hidden content receives keyboard focus, as the focus moves from the category heading to the list beneath.
  • The links immediately after the Home page search bar look visually like headings but are not formatted as headings.
  • The heading under the Profile Menu look visually like a heading, but is not marked as one.
  • The headings on the request pages do not progress in order (jumps from H1 to H3).
  • The heading names for the table on the My Requests page are not read out by a screen reader.

This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships, 2.4.6 Headings and Labels 2.4.7 Focus Visible.

Lists
  • The category items that appear on the Home page underneath each category visually appear as a list but are not formatted as one.

This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships,

Interactive tools

Forms
  • Some of the forms linked from the IT Help Centre have dropdown menus, the content of which is not properly read out by a screen reader.
  • If you use a keyboard to navigate, when you have a form open, you can accidentally tab past the contents of the popped-up form and it takes you back to the main IT Help Centre page with your keyboard, even with the form still open.
  • If you close a form when using a keyboard, it takes you back to the beginning of the home page. As there is no ‘skip to content’ link at the beginning, this can make accidental form selections time-consuming to rectify.
  • The forms linked from this page do not adjust when zoomed in, which makes them hard to navigate if the text size has been changed by the person accessing the form.
  • Some of the fields in the forms are required fields, but this information is not indicated until after you attempt to submit the form.

This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion, 1.4.4 Resize text, 1.4.10 Reflow, 1.4.12 Text spacing, SC 2.4.1: Bypass Blocks, 2.4.3 Focus Order.

Non-accessible content for internal-facing section

In addition to the issues mentioned above, there are some further accessibility issues in the internal/ISS-facing section of this website. The issues outlined below are in addition to the already mentioned list.

Links

  • There are some links that are not clear from the text where they go, for example, the ‘More’ menu.
  • There are some links that have the same title but different locations, for example ‘Queues’.

This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) and 2.5.3 Label in Name.

Navigation

  • A significant number of site-wide and page specific interactive features as well as the rich text editor fields (Such as the ‘Description’ field) are not fully keyboard accessible.

This can make navigating the back-end of the site extremely difficult to use, if not blocking functionality entirely. This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard.

Text and content

Text

  • The information in the tooltips, which provide extra context, can’t be accessed by screen readers.

This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard.

Headings

  • Most of the issue pages are missing a Header 1 tag. The name of each issue is tagged as Header 2.

This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.

Lists

  • Menu breadcrumbs are not marked up as a list.

This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.

Tables

  • The Reporter information is structured as a table but has no header row.

This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We will continue to work with the supplier, Atlassian, to address the accessibility issues highlighted and deliver a solution or suitable work around.

As we host this product locally, there are some small changes we can make internally to the customer facing side of this product and it is part of our plan to fix these.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 25 April 2025. It builds on a pre-existing statement that did not fully meet the requirements of the PSBAR 2018.

This website was last tested on 15 April 2025. The test was carried out by Lancaster University.

We used this approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test:

  • The IT Help Centre home page is the page most frequently accessed. This page was the most thoroughly tested.
  • A small sub-set of linked forms were also tested. These were chosen based on the variation of content they contained.
  • The My Requests page and an example open request was tested for people who look at their open issues.
  • A request from the internal-facing side.

Testing was completed using a combination of automatic and manual website plug ins and applications, including Silktide, Microsoft Accessibility Insights for Web, NVDA, Windows Magnifier and Windows Voice access.