Accessibility statement for the University of Hull's Hydra digital repository website

This accessibility statement applies to the content of the Library’s Hydra digital repository service and website, based on its front page at https://hydra.hull.ac.uk and pages within this domain, in particular the single item web page: an example at https://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:16492 was used for this.

This Hydra digital repository is run by the University Library at University of Hull. 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
  • zoom in up to 300% 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 (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

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

  • Not all links have correct or accessible labels to facilitate navigation
  • The relationship between sections of a page is not always clear
  • There are occasional duplicate attributes in the way parts of the some pages are described.
  • The contrast in colours used for text and background is sometimes weak
  • The site doesn’t always respond as cleanly as it could when increasing the spacing between text elements

The Hydra digital repository service uses software that has now been superseded and is no longer being maintained: this is the underlying cause of some of the issues identified.  Options for replacing Hydra with an alternative system are being explored, which is encompassing accessibility needs going forward.

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:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 days.

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: libhelp@hull.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).

Visiting us in person

Our service desks have audio induction loops as do some of our teaching spaces. If you need to speak with a member of staff in an induction loop enabled space, please contact us in advance. 

You can let us know about any specific needs you have when signing up to our events and workshops. 

Please use the appropriate email address:

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

University of Hull Library 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

There exists a failure for WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.5.3 - Label in name related to inconsistent naming of accessible tags not matching the visible text being used. We plan to carry out a short-term review of the service and its public web pages to address this ahead of exploring a replacement for this system.

There exists a failure for WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 - Non text content related to the clear, descriptive labelling of one the icon images used. We plan to carry out a short-term review of the service and its public web pages to address this ahead of exploring a replacement for this system.

There exists some failures for WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 - Name role value related to the lack of labels for input elements within the page template so they can be interpreted by an accessibility reader.  We plan to carry out a short-term review of the service and its public web pages to address this ahead of exploring a replacement for this system.

There exists some failures for WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 - Info and relationships related to the information presented for certain elements and their relationship to each other.  We do not plan to change these in the light of looking to replace the system given the nature of the changes required.

There exists a failure for WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1 - Parsing related to a duplicate id attribute within the page.  We plan to carry out a short-term review of the service and its public web pages to address this ahead of exploring a replacement for this system.

There exists a number of failures for WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.6 - Contrast enhanced related to the colour of text against the background used. We plan to carry out a short-term review of the service and its public web pages to address this ahead of exploring a replacement for this system.

There exists some failures for WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.12 - Text spacing related to how the page responds when spacing within the text is increased.  We plan to carry out a short-term review of the service and its public web pages to address this ahead of exploring a replacement for this system.

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

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing information. 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

The above sections detail our work in progress to improve accessibility.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22nd September 2020. It was last reviewed on 23rd September 2020.

This website was last tested on 21st September 2020. The test was carried out by our staff, using a number of industry-standard tools and manual checks.

You can read the full accessibility test report at: https://checker.web2access.org/review/c5a0eef9474c8e4714d66179c67e3255c6e07119f959897b09 and https://checker.web2access.org/review/8935b423da475551f62e02c57afb9a43432ebe35da1eb3264f

We tested: