St Mary’s Turnitin Accessibility Statement
This accessibility statement applies to Turnitin tool which is integrated with the Virtual Learning Environment at St Mary’s University.
Turnitin is an e-assessments and feedback tool integrated with the Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) at St Mary’s University. It is a commercial software application provided by Turnitin. As Turnitin is a third party software we have limited control over the changes we can make to it. Turnitin provide detailed informatiosn about the Turnitin software application and its accessibility along with a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) on their website.
https://www.turnitin.com/about/accessibility
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)
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible as described in the Non-accessible content section.
Feedback and contact information
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of the applications. If you find any problems not listed on this page, need information on this website in a different format (such as an accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille) or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please email web.accessibility@stmarys.ac.uk
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in ten working days.
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
St Mary’s 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 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
We know that some parts of the Turnitin application are currently not fully accessible, such as:
- Not all images have alternative text
- Audio added to Turnitin may not have accompanying text alternative
- Colour contrasts may not always meet recommended WCAG guidance
- Pop ups and new windows open without warning
- Use of italics and continuous capitals
- Not all pages reflow when magnified
- Not all content can be magnified
- Not all content can be navigated without using a mouse and it can be difficult to tell where you have navigated too sometimes
- There are some issues with the use of screen readers around inconsistent navigation and lack of images being labelled
- On the student system there is a time limit
The service is primarily used to upload student assessment files for staff to review similarity with other digital content and marking this means documents and other content can be uploaded which aren’t accessible.
Disproportionate burden
At this time, we have made no claims of disproportionate burden.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
Portable Document Format (PDF) and other documents
Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.
Content – issues with have identified with content uploaded to Moodle e.g. PDF (Portable Document Format) document accessibility
- Documents have tables that don’t have any headers - this poses navigational difficulties to screen reader users who may find it difficult to make sense of information in tables that is not correctly marked up.
- Documents missing titles - a PDF title is a more descriptive and meaningful version of the file name. PDF titles are often visible in the PDF window or tab which makes it easier to distinguish multiple PDFs (Portable Document Formats) (Portable Document Format) before diving in.
- Documents contains images without a description - this means that visual elements are not described in a meaningful way and are therefore inaccessible non-visually.
- Documents have contrast issues - as with the website certain elements within some documents do not have sufficient contrast. This can affect the experience of all users who may find it difficult to read lower contrast areas
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. For example, we do not plan to fix historical meeting minute documents published before 23 September 2018. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards
Intranet content
Under the regulations intranet and extranet content are exempt from compliance deadlines until such time as they are substantially revised. It is believed that the content of the Moodle (VLE) has not met the criteria for substantial revision since the regulations came into force and as such this content will be expected to comply as of the next substantial revision to the platform.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We will continue to work with the supplier to address the accessibility issues highlighted and deliver a solution or suitable work around. We have developed new training and materials for our staff that cover how to create accessible content for the VLE and we are continuing to work through our documentation and guidance to make it more accessible (including captioning video materials).
We will continue to monitor the system’s accessibility and will carry out further accessibility testing as these issues are resolved. However, due to the complex nature of the information displayed it may not be possible to resolve all accessibility issues. If this is the case, we will ensure reasonable adjustments are in place to make sure no user is disadvantaged. We plan to have resolved the majority of accessibility issues by the next upgrade scheduled for February 2021.
How we tested this website
This website was last tested on 3 September 2020. The test was carried out by us. All pages of the website were tested along with a sample of the documents from each area of the website.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 23 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 22 September 2020.