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King's College London

Accessibility Statement for King's Apply

This accessibility statement applies to content published on the King’s Apply website (apply.kcl.ac.uk).

King’s Apply is a third-party application and is provided by NashTech to King’s College London to allow the King’s Admissions Office to accept and assess applications, and to communicate with applicants to the university in regards to their application.

Using the application

We want as many people as possible to be able to use, read and understand the content of King’s Apply.

This means that you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate the application using just a keyboard
  • navigate the application using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the application using a screen reader

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this application is

We know some parts of King’s Apply aren’t fully accessible, and the complexity and volume of content available presents difficulties in identifying all accessibility issues. Users may experience issues depending on the area they are accessing. For example:

  • You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text and PDF documents are not accessible to screen reader software.
  • Some online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard and some elements including interactive elements do not receive keyboard focus.
  • On some pages, keyboard focus is not appropriately managed or implemented and some on-interactive elements receive keyboard focus when they should not.
  • Screen reader cursor focus is not managed appropriately when the page is dynamically updated.
  • Some images and icons do not have alternative text.
  • Certain relationships between elements are expressed with visual cues but not coded in a way that enables assistive technology to communicate the relationship to users.
  • Some interactive elements and headings are not appropriately identified for assistive technology such as the current page the user is on.
  • Some error messages are not associated with input fields and some form fields and visual labels are not associated or are incorrectly associated.
  • Some additional information/instructions are not associated with input fields and some table tags are used inappropriately.
  • Some interactive elements such as checkboxes, comboboxes, buttons etc are not associated with their visual or group labels.
  • Some instructions rely on visual sensory characteristics to be performed such as shape, colour, size, location, or orientation.
  • On some input fields the autocomplete feature which predicts the value being entered has either not been used or has been set to off meaning that fields cannot be autofilled.
  • On some pages colour alone is used to communicate information such as when an item is selected, toggled on or off, or when something is a link.
  • Some regular text, link text, and button text does not have sufficient colour contrast and some functional and informative non-text content such as icons does not have sufficient colour contrast.
  • On some pages, zoom causes loss of meaningful content and content reflow.
  • There is no way to bypass blocks of content which repeat on pages and there is no way to skip to main content.
  • Some links are not self-explanatory or made clear by surrounding content or context.
  • Some instructions are embedded into interactive elements such as tooltips that have been inappropriately marked up making them inaccessible.
  • Some required fields are not identified, are inconsistently identified, or lack clear instructions identifying them as required.
  • Some non-text content such as decorative icons is not hidden from assistive technology.

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed in this statement or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, email diversity@kcl.ac.uk.

If you need information on this application in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, email diversity@kcl.ac.uk.

We will consider your request and get back to you in 7 days.

If you need to escalate your issue further, contact Lorraine Kelly, Director of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, via diversity@kcl.ac.uk. You can expect an acknowledgement of your issue within 7 days and a full reply within 14 days. If your complaint raises complex issues that cannot be answered within 14 days, we will keep you informed of progress until we can fully respond.

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 application’s accessibility

King’s College London is committed to making this application accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

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

Non-accessible content

King’s Apply is provided by a third party supplier which means that some aspects of accessibility are outside our immediate control.

Some areas of King’s Apply do not meet accessibility requirements. They are listed below by WCAG criteria reference.

We plan to rectify the accessibility issues by September 2024. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure that it meets accessibility standards.

The content listed below is not accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

1.1.1: Non-text content

  • Informative image has no text alternative
  • Decorative icon not hidden from assistive technology
  • Functional icon does not have an alternative

1.3.1: Info and Relationships

  • Unordered list is malformed
  • Heading not marked up semantically
  • Comboboxes and visual labels are not associated
  • Form fields and visual labels have incorrect association
  • Error message not associated with input fields
  • Form fields and visual labels are not associated
  • Toggle button and visual labels are not associated
  • Form field group not associated with group label
  • Form fields not associated with legend
  • Form fields and multiple visual labels are not associated
  • Additional information is not associated with input field
  • Radio group not associated with legend
  • Table tags used inappropriately
  • Presentational table exposed to assistive technology (qualifications and checkbox list)
  • Checkbox group not associated with legend
  • Checkboxes and visual labels are not associated
  • Unordered list not marked up semantically
  • Description list not semantically declared

1.3.2: Meaningful Sequence

  • Content inappropriately exposed and hidden which breaks reading order

1.3.3: Sensory Characteristics

  • Instructions rely on visual sensory characteristics

1.3.5: Identify Input Purpose

  • Autocomplete value inappropriately set to off
  • Autocomplete attribute has not been used

1.4.1: Use of Colour

  • Links indicated using colour alone
  • Colour relied upon to communicate information (selected item and toggled item)

1.4.3: Contrast (Minimum)

  • Regular text and button text does not have sufficient contrast
  • Regular button text does not have sufficient contrast on mouse hover
  • Regular link text and button text does not have sufficient contrast on mouse hover and keyboard focus

1. 4.4: Resize text

  • Zoom causes loss of meaningful content

1.4.10: Reflow

  • Reflow causes loss of functionality and content

1.4.11: Non-text Contrast

  • Functional and informative non-text content fails contrast
  • Custom focus indication fails contrast

2.1.1 Keyboard

  • Interactive elements do not receive keyboard focus or can receive keyboard focus but cannot be controlled or adjusted using a keyboard
  • Combobox elements do not receive keyboard focus

2.2.1: Timing Adjustable

  • Timeout without any warning

2.4.1: Bypass Blocks

  • There is no mechanism to bypass blocks of content

2.4.3: Focus Order

  • Keyboard focus does not follow into expanded content
  • Background elements receive focus
  • Focus does not return to triggering element
  • Focus is not managed appropriately when page is dynamically updated
  • Screen reader cursor is not managed appropriately when page is dynamically updated
  • Focus does not remain on activated element
  • Non-interactive elements receive keyboard focus

2.4.4: Link Purpose

  • Links in tables not self-explanatory or disambiguated by context

2.5.2: Pointer Cancellation

  • Functionality completed on down event

3.3.1: Error Identification

  • Error messages that appear on submission, in toast on submission, or on blur have no programmatic call-to-action

3.3.2: Labels or Instructions

  • Interactive elements rely on title attribute for instructions
  • Required fields are not identified or are inconsistently identified
  • Asterisk indicating required fields is not explained

4.1.1: Parsing

  • Elements have duplicate ids

4.1.2: Name, Role, Value

  • Button element and link element has no role
  • Expandable element is not programmatically identified
  • Incorrect role has been defined on element
  • ARIA description refers to an incorrect element
  • Current step and page is not programmatically identified
  • Listboxes with no accessible name
  • Missing or malformed ARIA on collapsible and search combobox
  • Pressed element is not programmatically identified and has inappropriate role
  • Interactive elements with inappropriate name
  • Table element has the wrong role
  • Disabled element is not programmatically identified (buttons and link)
  • Missing or malformed ARIA on tabbed interface
  • Toggle button element has no role or state

4.1.3: Status Messages

  • Search results not programmatically identified
  • Combobox updates are not programmatically determined
  • Character count updates are not programmatically determined

Disproportionate burden

At this time, we have not made any disproportionate burden claims.

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

PDFs and other documents

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.

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services, for example, PDFs with information about offers received and other information on how to access our services. However, they may not meet accessibility requirements - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. If you require PDFs and Word documents in an alternative format you can email diversity@kcl.ac.uk.

For any new PDFs or Word documents we publish we will endeavour meet accessibility standards.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

King’s College London are working to fix or provide alternatives for all issues that are we are made aware of or are identified by our internal testing and auditing processes.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 30 November 2023.

King’s Apply was last tested on 12 April 2023. The test was carried out by an external accessibility organisation Ability Net.

As there are many thousands of pages on our website, we selected a limited number of pages to be tested. We wanted to include as many pages as possible within our budget in this audit, the pages were chosen because they are key in the application journey of prospective students.

A total of 11 pages were tested against the current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 Level AA standards.