We want everyone who visits Cambridge Open Engage and partners to feel welcome and find the experience rewarding.

We are committed to ensuring we do not discriminate against participants with disabilities in relation to access to information, academic content or research materials, in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 [opens in a new tab].

Our platform is designed with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to meet the WCAG 2.1 Guidelines [opens in a new tab] at level AA to ensure wide accessibility. We will endeavour to make reasonable adjustments to meet specific requirements. If you have a specific query regarding accessibility requirements, please email us.

We are continually working to make the site as accessible and usable as possible. To help us make it a positive place for everyone, we’ve been using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 [opens in a new tab]. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities, and user friendly for everyone. The guidelines have three levels of accessibility (A, AA and AAA). Our target is level AA.

You should be able to:

• Change colours, contrast levels and fonts by adjusting browser settings. Different browsers include these options under different menus – they can usually be found under Tools, Settings, Options, Content or Reading View depending on the browser. There are also browser extensions specifically dedicated to changing colours and contrast options, e.g. Change Colors [opens in a new tab] for Google Chrome and Color Changer [opens in a new tab] for Mozilla Firefox
• Zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen for most of the website. The website should work well in both portrait and landscape modes
• View all content with sufficient colour contrast (the minimum ratio we aim for is 4.5:1)
• Navigate all of the website using just a keyboard. All page elements have a visible focus state indicator
• Navigate the page in logical reading order with the ability to skip to headings, regions and hyperlinks. There are also multiple ways to navigate the entire site including navigation menus and crumb trails
• Listen to all of the website using a screen reader (e.g. the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver), including image descriptions for images that convey meaning, form elements and links with a descriptive label
• Understand the meaning of images and icons described by meaningful alternative text which explains its purpose within the context of the content. Some content may not have text alternatives available for figures and other graphics. If you encounter an image that does not have a text alternative, and you need one, you can request alternative text for specific images by contacting us via the details below. Images that are decorative or incidental are given a ‘null’ alt attribute so they are properly ignored by screen readers
• Understand the function of all form elements. All form fields have descriptive labels which explain their meaning and any that are mandatory to complete the form. If a particular form field has additional instruction then this is clearly provided and available to users of assistive technologies. In addition, buttons on forms have a descriptive value which explain their function before a form is submitted
• Easily identify and understand links. Links are styled differently to standard text used on the site: they are underlined and represented in a different colour to the surrounding text. Links have also been created in a way that allows them to be meaningful to all users even when taken out of context
• Use text to speech tools to read out website content in both PDF and HTML format (e.g. ClaroRead for Chrome browser [opens in a new tab]). Text to speech tools are built into some browsers (e.g. Microsoft Edge) and are available as a plug-in for many others. Your phone, tablet or laptop accessibility settings are also likely to provide text to speech functionality
• Skip directly to main content and other important pages
• Turn on captions for pre-recorded media content

All of our content is available in PDF format and is not protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM). To open PDF files, you will need a PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader [opens in a new tab]. Please see the following guide for advice on using the inbuilt accessibility features of Adobe Reader: Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features [opens in a new tab].

The majority of this website is fully accessible, and we run regular audits to identify any new problems. However, we know some parts of this website aren't yet fully accessible.

As a result of our last accessibility audit, we are working on improvements on a number of pieces of functionality:

• third party software is used on the site, it is expected that any accessibility issues relating to third party applications will be addressed with the supplier or a replacement offered when the contract ends
• there is author supplied video content which may not include captions. Cambridge University Press is looking into requesting this from authors and making this part of our policy
• there is author supplied video content which may not include an audio description or media alternative. Cambridge University Press is looking into requesting this from authors and making this part of our policy
• there are marketing images which contain text that is not included in the alternative description. Cambridge University Press will include instructions in admin guidelines to ensure this is provided

We operate a policy of continuous improvement when it comes to the accessibility of our content. Please contact us if you have any difficulty accessing any of the information it contains or if you have any suggestion as to how we might improve its accessibility.

This website is compliant wherever possible with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 [opens in a new tab]. AA standard (and in most cases AAA standards). The partial compliance is due to the non-compliances listed in the report attached below.

Cambridge Open Engage and partners are committed to making their websites accessible in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No.2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 [opens in a new tab], the EU Directive on the Accessibility of the Websites and Mobile Applications of Public Sector Bodies 2016 [opens in a new tab], and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act [opens in a new tab].

This website undergoes regular testing against the above guidelines by development and quality assurance teams. Working with in house accessibility specialists, any actions derived from the testing are taken and prioritised into our future work.

We also conduct testing with users who have a variety of different types of disability to ensure the website is optimised for use with assistive technologies.

In addition, we work with the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) who audited the site against WCAG 2.1 in August 2023. As a result of the audit we achieved DAC Accessible AA accreditation [opens in a new tab].

Cambridge University Press & Assessment have engaged with various accessibility initiatives and audits:

• RNIB Bookshare [opens in a new tab] collections (formerly Load2Learn) by donating digital files to the collection which ensures that accessible content reaches print disabled learners as fast as possible.
• We have also taken part in various initiatives and audits, e.g. The e-book accessibility audit [opens in a new tab], joint projects between several UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) disability and library services, Jisc and representatives from the book supply industry. The audit supports an inclusive approach by seeking to introduce a benchmark for accessibility in e-book platforms. The focus is on key areas of practical user experience to measure basic accessibility functionality and guide targeted platform improvement.
• The ASPIRE project [opens in a new tab] which aims to standardise accessibility statements so that readers know the benefits they can exploit or the barriers they need to work around when accessing texts in digital format. Cambridge University Press & Assessment was independently verified by ASPIRE [opens in a new tab] on 12 January 2023, achieving gold publishers standard with a score of 100%.

• AbilityNet [opens in a new tab] - AbilityNet provides free information and advice, individual assessment of technology needs, the supply of assistive technology with free support, a programme of awareness education, and consultancy for employers on system and workstation adaptations.
• Skill [opens in a new tab] - The National Bureau for Students With Disabilities. Skill is a national charity promoting opportunities for young people and adults with any kind of disability in post-16 education, training and employment across the UK.
• National Network of Assessment Centres [opens in a new tab] - A network of specialist services that facilitate access for disabled people to education, training, employment and personal development. Services include quality assessment and support in the use of assistive technology and/or specialised learning strategies.
• Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) [opens in a new tab] - Charity offering general information, advice and guidance for people with sight problems.
• Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) [opens in a new tab] - Charity representing deaf and hard of hearing people.
• British Dyslexia Association [opens in a new tab] - Aims to influence government and other institutions to promote a dyslexia friendly society.
• Action for Blind People [opens in a new tab] - Lots of information about issues relating to sight loss and accessibility.