Accessibility standards compliance

The Australian Government has endorsed the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 for all government websites.

The WCAG document lists requirements for making web content accessible to a wide range of people. This includes people with with disabilities, including :

• blindness and low vision
• deafness and hearing loss
• learning difficulties
• cognitive limitations
• limited movement
• speech difficulties

Following the WCAG guidelines will also make our web content more usable to many other users, including older users.

It will also enable people to access web content using many different devices - including a wide variety of assistive technologies and mobile technologies.

In 2011 we achieved Level A compliance as per these guidelines. We are committed to maintaining and improving on that level of compliance. We aim to meet the W3C's Level AA (double A) by 31 December 2014 (as per Australian Government accessibility requirements).

More information of Australian Government web accessibility requirements: Australian Government Web Guide Accessibility.

Navigation

Pages in our website are structured using properly ordered headers and page structure. We include a "Skip to content" link at the beginning of the page which allows screen readers to avoid reading out the navigation items on a page.

This is done to aid legibility. It also means that users are able to skim the main parts of the page. Some browsers can list all the headers on a page, or navigate directly to the next or previous header. We use the "On this page" feature (which identifies heading level 2) on pages with several sections (longer pages). We have a site map that is available in the footer of every page of the site that can give you further information about the second level pages on the site.

Text on our site

Most of the content on this site is text based. You are able to use your browser to resize text. If cookies are enabled in your web browser, these settings will probably be remembered each time you visit.

The W3C Web Accessibility initiative has instructions and information on website navigation such as changing text size or colours.

Images and videos on our site

Images have alternative text and may be described further in surrounding information.

All videos displayed or linked to from our site have captions and transcripts.

Our videos allow users to have full control while playing them. It allows them to choose when to play by clicking the play button on the video.

Assistive technologies

We have assistive technologies that students and staff can use.

Our disability resources rooms have specialised equipment such as braille printers, track balls and mice, software for screen reading and magnifying , speech recognition.

You can email disability@vu.edu.au to find out more.

Disability Support Service

We have Disability Liaison Officers who can help our students with a range of issues related to studying at VU, including:

• study advice
• referrals
• course adjustments
• alternative assessment arrangements

Students can register for disability support.

You can email disability@vu.edu.au or register with a Disability Liaison Officer to make an appointment to see a Disability Liaison Officer.

Accessible maps

We are progressively developing accessible maps for our campuses pages on the site. Choose a campus page then use the map that applies to you.

Some of the features we are including are:

• text alternative maps for our campuses if you use a screen reader, screen magnifier, or if you simply cannot read maps
• visual aid maps for people with issues that require them to see photos of places. They include photos and detailed descriptions of building entrances, lifts, toilets and other services.

Send us feedback

We're always happy to receive feedback, you can find a link to a feedback form on every page of our site.