Accessibility Statement

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 statement applies to the website for the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford: www.sociology.ox.ac.uk. This website is run by the Department of Sociology. AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

This website runs on Oxford Mosaic, the University of Oxford’s web platform. Information regarding the accessibility features common to platform sites can be found in the Oxford Mosaic Accessibility Statement. Where applicable, further information on the content or features specific to this site is given below.

How accessible this website is

We are aware that some parts of our website are not fully accessible. These include:

  • Some PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

  • Some form controls have a title but do not have a label
  • Some form labels are not correctly associated with a form control

We are working to address areas where our accessibility needs improvement. Please see 'technical information' and ‘non-accessible content’ below for more details.

Feedback and Contact Information

If you need information on this website in a different format, please contact the Department of Sociology Administration Team: maria.moreno@sociology.ox.ac.uk

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you have any questions or concerns about this statement or the accessibility of our website, please contact: maria.moreno@sociology.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’d like more information about accessibility and resources for students, staff and visitors in Oxford more generally, please visit the University of Oxford Equality and Diversity pages. If you’re 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 Department of Sociology is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below under ‘Non-Accessible Content’.

Accessibility Known Issues

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

  • The purpose of some links are not clear from the link text. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose). We plan to update link texts by December 2021.

  • Several of the PDFS on this site do not meet accessibility standards,for example, they may not be marked up so that they’re accessible to a screen reader. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value). We plan to publish accessible versions of documents which are essential to service by October 2021.

  • Not all forms have labels indicating the purpose of the field that they relate to, and not all form labels are correctly associated with a form control. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and relationships (A)). We are working with our developers to implement fixes for these navigation issues over the coming months.

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 supporting documentation. We are not responsible for the accessibility of third-party content or to other sites we link to.

Third party platforms

We often create content which is hosted on third party platforms. We are responsible for ensuring the content we supply meets accessibility requirements; however, we are not responsible for the accessibility of the platform itself.

Documents (Word & PDF)

This site has a number of Word and PDF documents which were published before September 2018. These aren’t essential to the service we provide and won’t be replaced. If you experience any difficulties accessing these documents, please email maria.moreno@sociology.ox.ac.uk.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We want our website to offer the best experience possible for all of our users. We are currently in the process of addressing the outlined known accessibility issues.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 10 December 2020. It was last reviewed and updated on 13 April 2021.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested over a number of weeks leading up to 13 April 2021. The test was carried out internally using a manual check on a carefully chosen sample of pages and content types and checked against WCAG 2.1 guidelines, with a focus on the items in the Gov.uk’s WCAG 2.1 Primer Checklist.