Accessibility statement for University of the Arts London (UAL) Moodle

This accessibility statement applies to moodle.arts.ac.uk

Moodle is the University of the Arts London (UAL) and its subsidiaries' Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Moodle is an open-source project, led and coordinated by Moodle HQ and this means that certain aspects of its design are not under UAL's control.

Moodle state that the VLE meets WCAG 2.1AA level compliance on version 4.x. UAL are using version 4.5 of the LMS. Read the Moodle Accessibility statement for further details. Moodle content can be produced by any teacher or student. As such it will never be possible to say with 100% certainty whether all of Moodle is fully accessible or not. However, UAL and its subsidiaries aim to ensure that teaching, learning, and assessment resources built in, and/or uploaded to Moodle are fully accessible to all users.

Moodle includes an 'Accessibility Checker' in the Tiny MCE Text Editor which scans course content and alerts users to a range of accessibility issues that may be found within the text.

We commit to ensuring this website is as accessible as possible and we want as many people as possible to be able to use it. This means that you should be able to:

access the website regardless of the device and browser you are using
zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver). Find out about the screen readers that Moodle supports.
We have also tried to make the website text as easy to understand as possible although we recognise we have more work to do on this.

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

If you need support, please contact the Disability Service for help and advice. More information on the Disability Service.

Recite Me

We use Recite Me on Moodle, which is a cloud-based assistive toolbar. Recite Me allows you to customise Moodle content so that you can consume it ways that work for you. The toolbar includes:

a screen reader
reading aids such as a ruler, magnifier, and dictionary
a screen mask
colour contrast options
text re-sizing
the option to download text as an audio MP3 file
alternative font options including OpenDyslexic
a language translation tool

A user guide is available on the Recite Me website.

Recite Me works by placing cookies on your device. Information about these cookies is available on UAL's Cookies page.

The Recite Me translation tool uses machine translation and text that is translated on the site may not be entirely accurate.

The Recite Me toolbar meets the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. Read the Siteimprove accessibility report.

In some cases, Recite Me may not be entirely compatible with other technologies and plugins that we have on Moodle. We are constantly reviewing and working to improve the accessibility across Moodle.

Ally

Ally is an accessibility tool for staff, providing analysis/remedy of accessibility issues for files hosted within Moodle. It can provide a detailed course level report illustrating the level of accessibility for files throughout the course.

Third-party accessibility links

Several third-party tools are integrated into or linked from Moodle.

Detailed information about the accessibility of these products and statements of compliance can be found below:

A VPAT, or Voluntary Product Accessibility Template, is a document prepared by a product developer or vendor which describes how well the product conforms to the accessibility standards of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act in the USA. They evaluate how accessible a product is against WCAG standards.

How accessible is Moodle?

Moodle is a complex platform that contains a large quantity of user-generated content, third-party plugins and custom development.

At a platform level the Moodle Accessibility Statement addresses the core issues. Version 4.2 is currently WCAG 2.1 AA certified as of Jan 2024. UAL uses Moodle 4.5, which is being updated to meet WCAG 2.2 AA standards. Follow progress of the updates for Moodle 4.3 up to 4.5.

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

Not all uploaded documents (such as PDF or .doc) are fully accessible to screen readers
Live video streams do not have captions
Some parts of the Turnitin submission interface don't show visible focus when accessing with a keyboard
There is a keyboard trap when using the Panopto Student Submission activity to submit a video

Compliance status

Moodle is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard. Non-compliances and exemptions are below

Non-accessible content

The content below is non-accessible for the following reasons:

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some images do not have a text alternative. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content).
Some pre-recorded videos do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.2 (Captions (Prerecorded)).
Some time-based media does not have audio description or an alternative format available. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.3 (Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded)).
Some pre-recorded video content doesn't have audio description. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.5 (Audio Description (Prerecorded)).
The relationships conveyed through presentation can't always be programmatically determined. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
Text contrast in HTML content and uploaded documents isn't always sufficient. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)).
Images of text are used in some uploaded documents (such as scanned PDF files). This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.5 (Contrast (Minimum)).
Some content is not navigable by keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.1.1 (Keyboard).
There is a keyboard trap when using the Panopto Student Submission plugin. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.1.2 (No Keyboard Trap).
Some content isn't correctly titled (PDF documents and SCORM files). This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.2 (Page Titled).
Not all links have a described purpose. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)).
Some user interface components don't display focus when accessed via a keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.7 (Focus Visible).
The focus of some user interface components is obscured when accessed via a keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.11 (Focus Not Obscured (Minimum)).
Not all user interface components have a label containing an accessible name. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.5.3 (Label in Name).
Some uploaded documents don't identify the language of the page. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.1.1 (Language of Page).
Not all user interface components are correctly labelled or have roles set, including labels for form controls and title attributes. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).

What we're doing to improve accessibility

The upgrade to Moodle 4.5 in July 2025 brings further opportunity for UAL to improve on accessibility. The list below highlights key planned activities and improvements in relation to accessibility, over the next 12 months:

A Teaching and Learning Accessibility best practice group has been established to discuss and implement accessibility improvements on our digital learning platforms and across our colleges
Continuously improve our guidance to staff on how to ensure content uploaded to Moodle meets accessibility guidelines
The Digital Accessibility Hub is now available on the main UAL website where you can find information and useful guidance on how to optimise the accessibility features on our different platforms.

Feedback and how to get in contact

If you need information on this website in an alternative, more accessible format please raise a request using MySupport.

Please include details of the content you need and the required format or the service you are trying to access. We will then work with the team who own the content or the service to get you what you need.

We aim to provide you with an initial response within two working days and will provide clear information about how we will deal with your request.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We're always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we're not meeting accessibility requirements, please raise a request using MySupport.

We aim to provide you with an initial response within two working days and will provide clear information about how we will deal with your enquiry or complaint

If you feel we have not answered your enquiry or complaint satisfactorily, please contact us again. We will escalate your enquiry or complaint to the Head of Product, Teaching & Learning, who will work with the team who provides the service/content to get you a response.

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).

Our commitment and legal obligations

We commit to ensuring the communications we produce are clear and accessible to the widest range of people.

We recognise our obligations under The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 and the Equality Act 2010.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 25 September 2023. It was last updated on 18th July 2025.