Accessibility

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. The Bodleian Libraries, as part of the University of Oxford, is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This accessibility statement applies to the University of Oxford’s SHOx website pages at https://shox.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliance(s) listed below.

Our aims

In order to ensure that all of our visitors can use our website, these pages aim to meet Level-AA standard of WCAG 2.2. This includes elements such as:

  • Alt text for all images and providing non-visual alternatives where appropriate
  • All essential audiovisual information is captioned, described as necessary or provided in alternative formats
  • Content can be navigated with just a keyboard or speech recognition tools
  • The website can be used with a screen reader
  • Content is structured, ordered and labelled appropriately

Guidance is available for editors and moderators of this site to help them maintain accessibility standards.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reason:

(a) non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Some colour contrasts do not meet minimum standards 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA)
  • Not all images have meaningful alt text (Bodleian logo in the footer) 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A)
  • The index images and text have redundant linking 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (Level A)
  • Headings are not used properly on the site – heading levels are not used and there are missed heading levels 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A)
  • User is not alerted when some hyperlinks open new tab/window/pop up
  • Some PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software

How you should be able to use this website

On our websites, you should be able to do things like:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of our websites using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of our websites using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

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

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 05/11/2025

Using the WAVE tool to assess W3C compliance.

The statement was last reviewed on: 05/11/2025

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, including accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille please contact us: shox@bodleian.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 please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) directly:

Contact details for the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)

The government has produced information on how to report accessibility issues:

Reporting an accessibility problem on a public sector website