Now open: A Mile in My Shoes in Montréal, Canada!

About this statement

This statement was last updated in July 2022.

This accessibility statement applies to the main domain of empathymuseum.com. It does not apply to any subdomains; accessibility statements for these are in-progress

This was programmed by an external web developer in 2019, and its content is maintained by Empathy Museum. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. That means it should be possible 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)

 

    • Understand the text on this website without any specialist knowledge

 

 

How accessible this website is

Some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

    • The map on our ‘find us’ page is very difficult to navigate using just a keyboard, or a screen-reader

 

    • We cannot currently be contacted by phone

 

    • Our main navigation menu is difficult to navigate using just a keyboard, or a screen-reader

 

    • Our older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software, and do not have HTML alternatives

 

    • 48% of existing (as of July 2022) episodes on our embedded podcast feed are awaiting text-based alternatives

 

 

 

Contact information

Empathy Museum does not currently have a phone number as a point of contact, which we recognise is an accessibility issue in itself. Please send text, audio recording, video recording to hello@empathymuseum.com if:

    • You need information from this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy-read, audio recording or braille. We’ll aim to respond to you in 5 working days.

 

    • You cannot access the information on our ‘find us’ page and would like it in a different format.

 

    • You would like to make us aware of a website accessibility problem that we haven’t already mentioned above. The problem will be looked into by our Comms Producer, working with an external web developer.

 

 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the exemptions and non-compliances listed below.

DEFINITIONS RELATED TO Compliance status

    • Non-compliant – the content in question is in scope of the regulations, but there’s an accessibility problem with it

 

    • Exemption – the content is inaccessible but out of scope of the regulations, or the regulations would consider it a “disproportionate burden” for Empathy Museum to make the content accessible

 

 

Content not compliant with the accessibility regulations

This section details:

    • Accessibility problems

 

    • Which of the WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria the problem fails on

 

    • When we plan to fix the problem

 


Accessing pre-recorded media (audio & video)

1. 48% of our existing podcast episodes (embedded on the ‘podcast’ page) (as of July 2022) do not have accompanying transcripts. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded). We are currently researching and applying for funding to complete transcripts for all audio content. We aim to have published transcripts for all website audio content by December 2023. Any new audio content published after July 2022 will have an accompanying transcript.

2. We do not offer alternatives for some time-based media embedded on our website (video and audio). This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.8 Media Alternative (Prerecorded). This includes many of our audio projects shared via our podcast, which ties into a much bigger archival project across Empathy Museum’s artistic output. We are currently researching and applying for funding to complete alternatives for our existing and future time-based media content. We aim to have published these alternatives for all existing (as of July 2022) website audio content by December 2023. Any new video content published after July 2022 will have an accompanying text-based alternative.

3. We do not offer audio descriptions for two videos on our website. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.5 Audio Description (Prerecorded). We will publish audio descriptions for these two videos by the end of July 2022. Any new videos added to the website after this date will have audio descriptions.

4. We do not offer sign language interpretation for the audio (including video) on our website. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.6 Sign Language (Prerecorded). We do not currently have a roadmap for how to offer sign language on our audio content. As much of our artistic output is audio-based, this would be a significant undertaking likely requiring external funding. We aim to have completed research on the possibilities around this by the end of 2022.


Visual presentation

1. The default visual presentation of text on some elements of our ‘What’s On’ module (on the homepage) does not have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum). We are not currently able to edit the default theme design of our WordPress site without an external developer. Because of this way of working, we can only update the website theme periodically, when a suitable amount of required changes have been compiled and when funding allows. We aim to make the next round of changes by the end of December 2023. In the meantime, we are using the EqualWeb plugin across the main parts of the website to enable users to change the text contrast settings (which does eliminate this contrast issue).


Operations

1. The main navigation menu of the website does not maintain all functionality when navigated through a keyboard interface. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard, and 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap. We are not currently able to edit the default theme design of our WordPress site without an external developer. Because of this way of working, we can only update the website theme periodically, when a suitable amount of required changes have been compiled and when funding allows. We aim to make the next round of changes by the end of December 2023.

2. Links attached to SVG icons and image files – such as social media icons, podcast platform icons, press logos, and partner logos – do not have clear purposes when accessed via a screen reader. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard, and 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap. We are not currently able to edit the default theme design of our WordPress site without an external developer. Because of this way of working, we can only update the website theme periodically, when a suitable amount of required changes have been compiled and when funding allows. We aim to make the next round of changes by the end of December 2023.

 

Disproportionate burden: Interactive tools and transactions

1. Our newsletter form and our interactive map are difficult to navigate using a keyboard or a text-to-speech reader. For example, some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag, and some text is not picked up by these tools. Our forms and map are built and hosted through third party software and given a ‘skin’ to look like our website. Having assessed the cost of removing their issues – changing newsletter provider and map provider – we believe that doing so now would be considered a “disproportionate burden” within the definition of the accessibility regulations. However, we do acknowledge that accessibility should have been a greater priority for us when originally choosing these providers and do not feel comfortable with the negative associations of the word “burden” being applied to the situation we are in now. We plan to change to an accessible map provider when our current provider contract ends in November 2022. We are currently researching alternative ways to present our forms – but this may require the work of an external developer. We try to batch requests to external developers for ease and funding reasons, so this work may not be completed until December 2023.

 

Content not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Wherever possible, we try to present information in PDF, HTML page, and audio recording format. Some of our PDFs are essential to providing our services – namely, we have a printable PDF Teachers’ Pack available to access alongside our ‘A Mile in My Shoes: Nursing’ microsite. As this PDF was created by an external designer and contains elements for the user to complete by hand, we do not currently have plans to translate it into an HTML page unless the Nursing project receives funding to expand.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

By the end of July 2022 we will publish our accessibility roadmap, detailing how and when we plan to improve accessibility across this website, the rest of our digital estate, and our “in-person” artistic outputs.

 


Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 1 July 2022. It was last reviewed on 4 July 2022.

This website was last tested on 1 July 2022. The test was carried out by an automated accessibility testing extension for Google Chrome called Axe, created by Deque Systems, and recommended by the UK Government’s Central Digital and Data Office.

We tested every page that uses our main custom WordPress theme within the main domain of empathymuseum.com. There is separate testing still needed on our subdomains and microsites (which each use different themes, layouts and languages): nursing.empathymuseum.com, fromwhereiamstanding@empathymuseum.com, and empathymuseum.com/collections/health-foundation.