New accessibility legislation applies to all UCL website content, e-learning and library systems

New legislation came into law last autumn to ensure that digital content is accessible by everyone.

This means that UCL, along with all other universities, will need to make improvements to the information in our websites and online learning environments, including documents, presentations and videos on websites and in Moodle. 

The rules will apply to new online content from September 2019, and will need to be applied to existing content by Sept 2020.

Colleagues responsible for online pages and files will need to review and update all content to meet the new standard so that it can be accessed by people with disabilities. We know that this is going to be a big job, and that colleagues will need support and guidance, so ISD will be introducing tools which will help scan files for accessibility problems and provide feedback on how to fix them, as well as running a programme of training and awareness raising. Funding permitting, ISD also hope to employ a team of students that departments can engage to fix their files.

We’ll be providing an update on this, and publicising our programme of training and support, in the coming weeks.  In the meantime please remind yourself of some of the key things you can do to make online materials more accessible – we have developed guidance on working with images, slides, documents, multimedia and more.

By making your files fully accessible to people with disabilities, they will be easier for everyone to use.