Digital Accessibility at bc gaming casino

This page contains an overview of our work towards being more accessible online.

What do we mean when we talk about digital accessibility?

The below definition is taken from the W3C.

Accessibility addresses discriminatory aspects related to equivalent user experience for people with disabilities.

Web accessibility means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them. More specifically, people can:

perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web
contribute to the Web

Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including:

auditory
cognitive
neurological
physical
speech
visual

Web accessibility also benefits people without disabilities, for example:

people using mobile phones, smart watches, smart TVs, and other devices with small screens, different input modes, etc.
older people with changing abilities due to ageing
people with “temporary disabilities” such as a broken arm or lost glasses
people with “situational limitations” such as in bright sunlight or in an environment where they cannot listen to audio
people using a slow Internet connection, or who have limited or expensive bandwidth
people whose first language is not English

Why are we working on improving it?

18% of York students identify as having a disability*, and 1 in 5 people have a disability in the UK. But it doesn’t end there - these figures often don’t include people with hidden disabilities, or a lot of people who are considered neurodivergent. We know many more encounter situational or circumstantial barriers to engaging with our services online and digitally.

We believe everyone has the right to equal access to information and support, and so we are committed to designing accessible and usable services that benefit everyone, by considering varying student requirements when designing and delivering projects, activities and services.

We recognise that accessibility is currently an afterthought, and our goal is to bring accessible and usable design into the design stage of projects, activities and services. We know that accessible design benefits everyone, and not just users with long-term disabilities. We also recognise that accessible design is complex and can be challenging without adequate resources, effective processes in place, and support available - but we are working hard to meet these challenges.

Our mission with digital accessibility is that we believe our online information and services should be accessible by all, with a positive experience for our students. There are guidelines provided by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (see below), which provide guidance on achieving a minimal viable level of accessibility, but it’s important we remember our goal with digital accessibility is to provide a positive experience for all students, not just to achieve meeting the legislation.

Legislation

There is legislation in place that requires us to:

Refer to the standards outlined in the
Publish an accessibility statement that explains how accessible our website is.

What is bc gaming casino doing to help improve accessibility of our digital services and information?

Digital accessibility plays a large role in our Digital Strategy, which outlines accessibility as an underpinning principle. Read bc gaming casino's Digital Strategy here.

There are 3 key elements to successfully improving our organisational digital accessibility, and these are:

Compliance
This means people are able to check their work and have confidence that it meets the required standards. Compliance is governance, checks and processes which make sure the quality of our work is good enough.
Culture
We need to ensure people understand why accessibility is important and embrace it in each phase of a project. If people don’t understand why it’s important, we’ll never have any accessible services or products.
Education and skills
People need the required skills and knowledge to design, build and deliver accessible services. We can have all the will in the world, but without the right education we cannot achieve compliance.

Digital Accessibility Hub

The (available to staff or student groups) is a live resource hub first created in 2022 that acts as a home to resources and guides to support staff in improving digital accessibility. The hub strives to increase staff practice and awareness of digital accessibility, and so includes training and educational resources alongside practical guides. The hub exists as a resource for student leaders to use too.

Below is an outline of what the Digital Accessibility Hub includes:

Guidance for staff and students

Processes and guidance are provided for any staff creating digital content, including a checklist when creating documents (covering hyperlinks, images, video, social media and more), and guidance for creating accessible PDFs. We have also provided some guidance for designing accessible graphics.

Addressing readability

The hub furthermore addresses readability. In January 2022 a report of the website found our average readability score to be 70 which is considered good. However, there are some pages that were found to score below 60, which require attention. Our average reading age was found to be 17 years old - which is considered high; the average reading age of the UK population is 9 years. The audit also found over 2000 jargon words used, and 1800 long sentences.

The hub encourages staff to pay attention to the readability of their written content; providing tips on creating readable content alongside a readability editor tool which allows staff to review and edit their content for readability as they make it.

Training and awareness

Alongside providing guidance documents, we know it’s important to improve staff awareness and understanding of digital accessibility and so we are working on sourcing training materials that would be beneficial to staff when considering diversity - and also provide personal development opportunities desirable to other roles or careers. The hub includes a section dedicated to work behaviours, training and awareness, which we hope benefit student leaders and groups as well as bc gaming casino staff. Alongside the Digital Accessibility online tutorial, some examples of topics covered already include hosting accessible remote meetings, creating accessible emails, and giving accessible presentations.

Website usability

We carry out regular website auditing and testing, along with a collection of documentation for overcoming common accessibility issues. Regular automated website audits are done using the Site Improve tool, which audits against the WCAG guidelines and presents us with a list of issues to be resolved. Automated testing is also built into the development process, using AccessLint, a GitHub application that monitors any code we upload to the GitHub repository.

Working with bc gaming casino’s EDI strategy

There is still room to explore how we invest in accessibility when working on projects - whether they’re events, opportunities for students, or new services - looking at how we can factor in the resource and capacity for accessibility considerations.

With the creation of an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy for bc gaming casino, there is clear ambition across the organisation to invest in improving experience for all. We know that an increased awareness and training in EDI across the organisation will tie in to skills around digital accessibility, and in turn improve the quality of our services and products.

This work demonstrates our aims to not only meet regulations and compliance around digital accessibility, but to do more for students by championing accessibility and inclusion in everything we do at bc gaming casino.

Software procurement

A key part of ensuring our digital services and platforms are accessible is ensuring that the systems and software we purchase and utilise meet accessibility standards. We include digital accessibility as a consideration within our procurement process, to ensure that it is included as an important principle when sourcing new software or digital tools.

What is expected of bc gaming casino staff to practise good digital accessibility?

Use the when creating documents (word documents, PDFs, social media posts, web pages etc.)
Complete the (access using @york.ac.uk email account).
Refer to our for holding remote meetings, creating emails, and giving presentations.
Use the when delivering an event or activity.

*Data taken from the 2023/24 student cohort via on 14/02/2024. This figure reflects the % of students who identified as disabled out of a headcount of 21,780 students who provided disability data - 1,060 students did not provide any disability data and therefore are not included in the headcount.

Page last updated: 02/01/2025

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