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Website Accessibility

The Royal Academy of Music 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 mostly compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, and work is in progress to make the site fully complaint.

Please note, our accessibility statement applies only to the Royal Academy of Music website under the domain https://ram.ac.uk (referred to as the 'The Academy website' for the remainder of this document).

What has been addressed

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website, that means you should be able to:

  • zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
  • adjust line height and word spacing using tools like Text Spacing Bookmarklet
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • navigate efficiently through the site using HTML landmarks such as breadcrumb trails, consistent menus or the search features
  • navigate long pages by headings/subheadings using assistive technology tools or plugins
  • listen to most of the website using assistive technologies – for example text to speech tools and plugins, screen readers, and inbuilt phone and/or tablet functionality

We have also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

Issues with PDFs and other documents

The Academy website contains many documents dating back several years. Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader, they may not work well with text to speech, they may not reflow when magnified and they may not be navigable by headings in the bookmark panel. Some may have colour contrast issues.

We are addressing these issues in the following ways:

  • All new documents uploaded from September 2020 will be tested for accessibility using the appropriate tools provided by Microsoft and Adobe, for example, before being uploaded to the website.
  • The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services. We will consider this as we review and work to update all our content and will make every effort to replace existing documents with accessible versions where possible.
  • We also know that some of the link text to our documents does not make sense when read on its own (for example, ‘click here’). We aim to fix the existing links by June 2022.
  • We are currently reviewing our internal capacity for a web-first approach to document creation for word and PDF documents, as per advice from the Office for National Statistics.

How we test

The Academy website was built in 2020 and has had several rounds of accessibility testing throughout the build. These tests were performed with Voice Over and keyboard, ANDI and tota11y tools, all within the Google Chrome browser. We are taking an agile approach to the ongoing development of our website; issues will be identified and fixed through continuous updates (see 'What we are working on' below).

What we are working on

Since the initial build in 2020, a site accessibility review has been performed which highlights areas of the website that are not yet fully accessible and which we are in the process of addressing. These include:

  • captions and audio descriptions on live videos and audio descriptions on pre-recorded videos via the Academy’s website, YouTube and Vimeo channels are not provided because the cost of doing so places a disproportionate burden on the Academy, and would significantly impede performance opportunities for students.
  • older (and some newer) PDF documents still have accessibility problems. Please see below for more details about documents
  • a few of our older videos do not have captions
  • we are still writing transcripts for our videos
  • we are continually updating alt text for appropriate images

User testing

In order to further assess and improve the accessibility of the Academy website, we had planned to run targeted, in-person user testing sessions alongside students with accessibility requirements in 2020. However, the COVID-19 Pandemic meant we had to cancel these sessions. This situation is being continually reviewed, and further updates will be published here.

Contacting the EASS

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 are not happy with how we respond to any issues you raise, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website and contact details

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

Email: web.accessibility@ram.ac.uk

When contacting us, please provide:

  • page URL (web page address)
  • issue encountered (and if on mobile or desktop)
  • any particular software or assistive technology being used (for example browser, screen reader)

We will aim to respond as quickly as possible and, if applicable, add a fix to our website bug fix schedule.

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 are not happy with how we respond to any issues you raise, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

This statement was updated on 8 February 2023 and is regularly reviewed.