Accessibility Statement

Accessibility statement for University College Birmingham

Please note: our current accessibility statement is being reviewed and additional work is being carried out to ensure we meet accessibility guidelines. The statement will be updated in the next 4-6 weeks (September 2023).

This accessibility statement below covers this website [ucb.ac.uk] as the main website for the University. Please note that we are committed to improving accessibility, and are actively working to address any outstanding areas outlined in the report. This particularly relates to video accessibility, where we are currently working on correcting and updating automated captions and producing transcripts.  

 

Support for Students with Special Educational Needs

University College Birmingham’s CASE (Centre for Academic Skills and English) team offer a wide range of support and advice to students with special educational needs and also to parents, staff and external agencies supporting students. The support available includes:

  • Advice regarding assistive technology. THE CASE team will be happy to direct students towards software such as Natural Reader (text to speech) and Talk Typer (speech recognition in a browser). We can also provide access to Sonocent Note-taker (which provides a text to speech function).
  • Strengths and Weaknesses assessment: While not an official diagnosis, our assessments may result in you being provided with or signposted towards relevant assisted technologies including, but not limited to, those mentioned above.

In addition, the UCB Library provides material in a variety of formats including print, eBooks, online journals and videos.

Most of the online library resources, which make up the largest part of the library collection, provide users with a variety of options for accessibility including changing screen colour, magnification of text and compatibility with screen readers.

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact Stephen Dudley.

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

If you cannot view the maps on our ‘contact us’ page, call us on 0121 604 1000 or complete our enquiry form here for directions.

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, please contact Stephanie Gregan

Please note that we are working hard to address all aspects of accessibility with our new website launch in 2020.

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

Our reception desks, and lecture theatres in McIntyre House and Moss House, have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

For more details, please contact us:

Accessibility statement for Canvas at University College Birmingham

Developed and hosted by Instructure, Canvas is a virtual learning environment for the delivery of teaching and learning resources and online assessment. Further information on Instructure can be found at https://www.instructure.com/about.

Within UCB, the Canvas system is managed by the Digital Innovation for Creativity in Education (DICE) department who develop the use of learning technologies to support and enhance the teaching and learning experience for staff and students. Everyone at UCB should be able to access and use the Canvas system to obtain the information and services they require. This is achieved via:

  • Navigation of content using a keyboard
  • Navigation of content using speech recognition software
  • Listening to content using a screen reader
  • Changing colours, contrast levels and fonts using the web browser settings

Further information on how well the Canvas system meets accessibility standards can be found here. Any teaching and learning resources created and uploaded to the UCB Canvas system is done so by the university academic staff and training on how best to create accessible content for Canvas is provided by the DICE team. Canvas also provides an “accessibility checking” feature within every course site that staff can use to identify and address any issues with content created directly within the Canvas system.

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of Canvas and will address any queries you may have. Support, advice and guidance is available via the following channels.

Any technical or accessibility-related queries should be directed to Richard Dudley (Head of Digital Learning) via r.dudley@ucb.ac.uk. The DICE team also welcome any feedback that staff and students may have.

Staff and students can also contact Instructure directly with any queries via the “Chat With Canvas Support” service. This is available via the “Support” menu of the Canvas system.

Any content related queries should be directed to the appropriate course or programme leader.

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