Accessibility statement for the SPIRIT–CONSORT website

The University of Oxford is committed to providing an accessible web presence that gives members of the public and members of the University community full access to University information, courses and activities offered publicly through the web. Our Equality Policy outlines our commitment to a culture which ‘maintains a working, learning and social environment in which the rights and dignity of all its staff and students are respected’.

This accessibility statement applies to the SPIRIT–CONSORT website – www.consort-spirit.org

This website is run by the SPIRIT–CONSORT Group based in the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

zoom in up to 200% 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
We have 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:

Older Word documents are not fully accessible to screen readers
Videos with audio content do not have captions or descriptions

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, please contact the SPIRIT–CONSORT Group:

Email: sally.hopewell@csm.ox.ac.uk

Post:
The SPIRIT–CONSORT Group
c/o Sally Hopewell
Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS)
University of Oxford
Botnar Research Centre, Windmill Road
Oxford, OX3 7LD
UK

We will consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, contact:

Post:

The SPIRIT–CONSORT Group

c/o Sally Hopewell

Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS)

University of Oxford

Botnar Research Centre, Windmill Road

Oxford, OX3 7LD

Email: sally.hopewell@csm.ox.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).

Other accessibility resources

If you would like more information about accessibility and resources for students, staff and visitors in Oxford more generally, please visit our Equality and Diversity pages.

If you are looking for information on building accessibility, please try the Access Guide or the University’s interactive map.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The University of Oxford 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

(1) Perceivable

Video with audio content

Not all videos have captions that are synchronised to the audio content of the video, making them inaccessible to people who cannot hear. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2.

We provide downloadable, time-stamped transcripts of all video with audio content. We will work with our Content Management System provider to enable embedding of captions synchronised to the audio content of the videos.

Not all videos have audio descriptions of important visual information that does not have audio, making this inaccessible to people who cannot see. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.5.

All important visual information in the videos is included in the narration. Transcripts of the narration are available for all videos.

(4) Robust

Compatible

In general, we cannot be certain that the website is fully compatible with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.

We will work to ensure that these criteria are met by regular maintenance updates and testing of the website.

Documents (Word & PDF)

Some documents (Word and PDF) on this site do not meet accessibility standards, which could result in them not being fully accessible to users of screen readers.

Any new documents published by the SPIRIT–CONSORT Group will meet accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

We do not consider any of the accessibility issues to be a disproportionate burden and aim to make the site fully compliant.

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

Third-party content

Our site includes third party content and functionality. This may direct you to a related service, link to another site or to supporting documentation. We are not responsible for the accessibility of third-party content or for other websites that we link to.

This includes:

PubMed, publisher or organisational websites
Reporting guideline checklist Word files
Documents (Word & PDF)

If you experience any difficulties accessing these documents, please email sally.hopewell@csm.ox.ac.uk. Any new documents published by the SPIRIT–CONSORT Group will meet accessibility standards.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We want to provide the best possible experience for all our website visitors. To achieve this we will:

Check all new features in our Content Management System (CMS), which is used to create this website, for accessibility before they are made available.
Check all new content prepared by the EQUATOR Network for accessibility before it is published.
Train all content editors on accessibility.
Carry out periodic accessibility checks.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 25 January 2024. It was last reviewed on 4 March 2024.

This website was last tested in January 2024. The test was carried out by the SPIRIT–CONSORT Group.

The following pages and functionality were checked to ensure that we covered the full range of content across the site:

Homepage
Main landing page of sections: Extensions, Translations, For researchers, For journals, About
Pages within sections: For journal editors, For peer reviewers, The SPIRIT–CONSORT Group, History, Funding, Impact
Accessibility, Terms of use and Privacy statement

The pages were checked manually using a combination of the following methods:

Checked against WCAG 2.1 guidelines, with a focus on the items in the Gov.uk’s WCAG 2.1 Primer Checklist
Viewed on a small screen
Viewed in different browsers
Checked using the LightHouse tool
Checked using WAVE (the WebAim’s Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool)
Checked using the Wix.com Accessibility Wizard to find and fix potential accessibility issues