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Library Accessibility and Resources

Library Accessibility

Library and Learning Resources are committed to providing online resources which are accessible to all our users. 

We aim to provide resources that meet or exceed level AA of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and now include an assessment of accessibility as standard practice when purchasing new resources.

Our digital collections are hosted by third-party publishers on their own web platforms which are independently developed. Many publishers are prioritising digital accessibility and have their own accessibility statements.

Library Accessibility

  • If you experience any problems relating to the accessibility of our online library resources or services, or have any general queries please contact us at library@uwtsd.ac.uk.

  • Our Online Library contains over 9,000 e-books covering a wide range of subject areas.  If you are looking for a specific e-book you can find authors and titles using the library catalogue. 

    What devices can I use to view ebooks?

    Most ebooks can be read online using a laptop, desktop PC, tablet, or smartphone.  

    If using an iPhone, iPad or Mac to read online and the screen remains blank, you may need to allow pop-ups for your browser as iOS devices disable them by default.

    It is possible to download most of our ebooks for offline reading either in EPUB or PDF format.  To download ebooks to your device you will need to create an Adobe ID and download additional software such as BlueFire Reader for tablets and mobile devices or Adobe Digital Editions for other devices.  It is recommended that you download the most up-to-date version for your operating system.

    Can I print or copy from an ebook?

    Library ebooks are protected by copyright law in the same way as print books.  For most ebooks this is controlled automatically by Digital Rights Management (DRM) software. 

    The amount that can be copied or printed varies from one publisher to another but is usually displayed when you use each book.  Please note that if you download an ebook the printing and copying functions are disabled. 

    Coverage: Partial, titles are purchased individually but cover a range of subjects.

    Access: Read online and download available. Copying, printing, and saving is available in the read-only format but restrictions apply. Downloads are available for up to 21 days.

    Simultaneous user access: Yes, for most titles. Some titles have a concurrent user limit.

    Formats available: 

    - Read online (Desktops, tablets, and laptops but NOT phones) 

    - PDF for chapter downloads 

    - EPUB for the whole book (downloads available for phones) 

    Downloading: Yes, whole books can be downloaded for a period of up to 21 days. Book sections can be saved as PDFs and saved indefinitely. EPUB downloads require Adobe Digital Editions or BlueFire Reader. For more information please refer to the ProQuest ebook central help guide

    Accessibility options: There is an accessibility mode that users can switch on themselves. For more information see ProQuest Ebook Central: Accessibility.

    Coverage: A general collection of e-books covering a wide range of subjects.

    Access: Read online and download available. In the read-only format copying, printing, and saving are restricted. Downloads are available for up to 7 days.

    Simultaneous user access: Most books on this platform have restricted user licenses.

    Formats available: PDF and EPUB depending on publisher.

    Downloading: Most titles can be downloaded. Book sections can be saved as PDFs and saved indefinitely. Download to desktops and laptops using Adobe Digital Editions. For mobile devices use Bluefire reader or the EBSCO ebooks app. You will need to create an account to download books for offline reading. Please see the EBSCOHost help pages for further information. 

    Accessibility: EBSCO has various accessibility features available. For further information please see EBSCO eBook Accessibility User Guide and FAQs.

    Coverage: Full access to the following collections - Business & Management, Classical Studies, History, Literature, Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion.

    Access: Read online and download individual chapters available. Copyright limits apply.

    Simultaneous user access: No limit.

    Formats available: HTML and PDF

    Downloading: Individual chapters can be downloaded as PDFs and kept indefinitely.

    Coverage: Partial, titles are purchased individually.

    Access: Read online and download available. Printing and copying are restricted in Read-only format. Items can be downloaded for up to 3 days.

    Simultaneous User Access: Yes for most titles. Some have a concurrent user limit. 

    Formats available: Read online, PDF, or EPUB downloads.

    Downloading: Download using Adobe Digital Editions or the VleBooks App which is available from the iOS or Android store. Please note that some titles are not available for download.

    Accessibility: Users can change fonts, font size, and contrast. For more information please see VLeBooks Accessibility Guidance

  • The Library Catalogue is powered by Ex Libris Primo. Primo is partially compliant with WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 level AA. Further detailed information can be found in the Primo Accessibility Report.

  • Our Online Resource Lists are powered by Ex Libris Leganto. Leganto is partially compliant with WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 level AA. Further detailed information can be found in the Leganto Product Accessibility Report.

    Your Online Resource Lists provide access to all the items of essential and further reading, viewing, watching, or listening that academic staff have selected for your modules.  We are committed to making it as easy as possible for students to access course/module reading materials and our Online Resource Lists enable you to:

    • Easily access module resources.
    • Connect directly to digitised resources.
    • Create your own favourites collection.
    • Suggest additional resources to your tutor.
    • Seamlessly access everything you need to be successful in your studies.
  • RefWorks is partially compliant with WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 level AA. Further detailed information can be found in the RefWorks Accessibility Guide and RefWorks Accessibility Statement.

    RefWorks is an online research management, writing, and collaboration tool, designed to help researchers easily gather, manage, store, and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and bibliographies.

    RefWorks Alumni Access
     
    Alumni of the university are entitled to a free RefWorks account.  For further information please contact the library, please note that we will check with the Alumni Society that applicants are eligible before providing further details.

  • The University’s Research Repositories are powered by Eprints. Accessibility statements for the repositories can be found at:

    Please note that older documents may not be in an accessible format. If you wish to request an accessible copy of any document held in our research repositories please contact repository@uwtsd.ac.uk.

    The Research Repository contains full-text research papers, journal articles, book chapters, and theses authored by University staff and students, and the Research Data Archive contains research data collected by University staff and students.

    University Policy encourages researchers to make their work available online, free to the reader, as soon as possible after publication.

    Academics and Researchers

    When you’ve had a paper accepted for publication, please Act on Acceptance - deposit the accepted manuscript into our repository within 3 months of acceptance:

    Takedown Policy

    The University of Wales Trinity Saint David takes reasonable steps to ensure that the materials held within its Repository are an accurate and authentic record of research activity within this institution.

    All materials deposited within the UWTSD Repository are made available in accordance with publisher policies (as detailed in SHERPA RoMEO) and/or with permission from rights holders.

    Material is not intended for removal except in keeping with internal policy or upon receipt of a valid and proven complaint.

    Acceptable reasons for complaint may include the following:

    • A breach of publishers’ rules and regulations (for example, an embargo breach, or a final publisher version being made available when only a pre-or post-print is allowed)
    • A violation of intellectual property rights (including moral rights or copyright)
    • A legislative breach (for example, data protection or defamation)
    • Matters of National Security
    • Falsified research, plagiarism, or failure to follow ethical guidelines

    Complaints must be in a written form specifying that you are the rights holder or an authorised representative of the rights holder and specifying reasons why the material should not be available in the UWTSD Repository. Complaints should be emailed to: openaccess@uwtsd.ac.uk.

    Full-text material that has been requested for removal will be restricted to Repository Staff only (within 8 working days of the request being received), and while the complaint is being investigated, the relevant metadata will remain searchable. For items where an internal process is dictating the removal of material, the metadata will also be removed from public view.

    The complaint will be escalated by the Repository staff to a member of the Library Management Team in the first instance.

    In cases where it is unclear whether a complaint is ultimately justified, the final decision will rest with the University.

    This policy has been adapted from an original with permission of the University of West London.

  • Accessibility Statement

    This accessibility statement applies to all pages within our website.

    This website is run by the web services team at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means on most pages on our website, 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).
    How Accessible is this Website?

    We know some parts of our websites and services aren’t fully accessible, and we are doing our best to fix these issues.

    • Some of our secondary brand colours do not have a sufficiently high contrast ratio.
    • Some images are missing alternative text.
    • Some documents, including documents in PDF format, are not yet fully accessible.
    • Our live video streams do not have captions.
    • Most of our embedded videos do not have captions.
    • Some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard.
    • You cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader.
    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, please contact us using the following details:

    Email: web@uwtsd.ac.uk
    Call: 01792 481000

    We’ll consider your request and get back to you in five working 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 the Web Services team at web@uwtsd.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).

    Technical Information about this Website’s Accessibility

    University of Wales Trinity Saint David 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 and exemptions listed below.

    Non-accessible content

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

    • Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

    There are a few instances where keyboard-only users or users of assistive technology may experience an unexpected focus order when they open up hidden content or modal dialogues. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 (focus order). These issues will be fixed when we launch our new website in June 2023.

    There are a few instances where keyboard-only users may be unable to access all the content. For instance, within some of the accordions, some of the content is not accessible.  This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 (keyboard). These issues will be fixed when we launch our new website in June 2023.

    Some of our PDFs and other documents, which are essential for administrative processes, don’t fully meet accessibility requirements. We are working through these documents to ensure their content will be accessible or that an accessible alternative is available.

    Some title elements are not marked up as headings or with the correct heading level, so some assistive technology users may not fully understand the content. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (information and relationships). These issues will be fixed when we launch our new website in June 2023.

    There are a number of parsing (coding) issues, including elements with duplicate attributes, which can affect accessibility technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1 (parsing). These issues will be fixed when we launch our new website in June 2023.

    Video content across the website has various problems, including a lack of captions, audio descriptions and media alternatives. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2, 1.2.3 and 1.2.5, which cover captions, audio descriptions and media alternatives requirements. These issues will be fixed when we launch our new website in June 2023.

    • Disproportionate burden

    We recognise that the accessibility of our website is not perfect, and we are working hard to correct the identified issues on our current platform. We are currently (October 2022) developing a new website with an external partner, which will address those areas that cannot be amended on our current platform. Although we do not claim it would be a disproportionate burden to fix these issues, we know that establishing a new website takes time. Our anticipated date for implementation of the new site is June 2023.

    The new website project is being prioritised because it will provide all users with an inclusive, widely accessible digital environment. As such, there may be some areas of non-accessibility of the current website that we cannot address or give priority to at present, as doing so would detract staff resources from the new website project. This will ultimately offer the best solution for all users encountering accessibility difficulties.

    Please contact us if you encounter difficulties accessing parts of our website using the email address web@uwtsd.ac.uk. We will support you in finding the information you need and consider interim fixes on a case-by-case basis.

    Content that is Not within the Scope of the Accessibility Regulations
    • PDFs and other documents

    Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards. For example, they may not be marked up so they are accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value). The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential for active administrative processes. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

    • Video captions

    Some of our older videos don’t have accurate edited captions or transcripts. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.1 (audio-only and video-only pre-recorded), 1.2.2 (captions pre-recorded), 1.2.3 (audio description or media alternative pre-recorded) and 1.2.5 (audio description pre-recorded). The regulations do not apply to recorded videos published before 23 September 2020. However, while these videos are not subject to the legislation, we have carried out an audit of all our videos and have begun a process of updating captions and adding full transcripts. Any new videos we publish will have edited captions and transcripts.

    • Live video

    Our live video streams don’t have captions. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions live). We don’t plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. However, we will add captions when we embed an edited version of the video streams on our website.

    • Discover Uni

    The colour contrast of the text on the Discover Uni statistics panels does not have sufficient colour contrast for visually impaired users. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (contrast (minimum)). Also, there is no way to control the animation within the Discover Uni panels. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.2.2 (pause, stop, hide). The Discover Uni panels are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. This is third-party content that is neither funded nor developed by us, nor under our control. 

    • Text in forms

    Text within forms does not respond to text spacing. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.12 (text spacing). The text styling within forms is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. This is third-party content that is neither funded nor developed by us nor under our control.

    How do we test this Website?

    We continuously test our Website, and we use a combination of methods to check our site:

    • Automated testing: we use Siteimprove, which scans our pages for accessibility errors, and lets us know which ones are the highest priority to fix.
    • Manual testing: we use an accessibility checklist to manually check a representative sample of pages from across our Website. This includes checking that our pages can be navigated using only a keyboard and testing any colour contrasts that could not be automatically checked.
    Other Accessibility Statements

    Some parts of our Website run on different systems, which may have different accessibility features or issues.

    • Accessibility Statement for UWTSD Moodle
    • Information Systems Accessibility
    • Online Library Accessibility
    Preparation of this Accessibility Statement

    This statement was prepared on 31 July 2020. It was last reviewed on 14 December 2022.

Accessibility Tools

The following tools can help users with viewing web pages and websites more comfortably: