According to the Equality Act 2010, all public sector organisations, including Universities, must make their websites and all their online content accessible to the standard of the "Web Contact Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 AA".
For Birmingham Newman Library, this means our website and all of the systems and content that you, our members, can use must be accessible to this standard. This includes Library Search, databases, e-book and e-journal content providers that we subscribe to.
The Birmingham Newman Library website has an accessibility statement, which will tell you what steps we have taken to make sure we are complying with the Law. Our external content providers for our databases, e-book and e-journal subscriptions will also have an accessibility statement.
We choose our external content providers very carefully to ensure that they meet the legal standard. However, there are many different ways that content can be displayed and access that will meet the standard, and different organisations will favour different methods.
All of our e-books are available on accessible platforms. Most use PDF and EPUB formats to show content within your Internet browser. This content will work with all standard accessibility tools, such as those that come with your computer's operating system (Windows, iOS, etc.) and those that are recommended and provided as part of reasonable adjustments for disabled students. Most modern Internet browsers also offer 'extensions' that can make webpages more accessible, such as screen filters and text-to-speech tools.
VLeBooks, which is where most of our e-books are hosted, also has enhanced accessibility tools built in to its Online Reader. We have made a video to show you the features that are available.
Other platforms that host e-books and online content, such as journal articles, may also offer enhanced accessibility tools. As a small library team, it would be difficult for us to produce videos to showcase all of these content providers' accessible features; however, many of them have their own tours and videos to help you make the most of their platforms. This content will usually be available in the 'Help' menu when you access these platforms.
We hope that you won't encounter any issues with our website, or with any external content we give you access to. However, if this does happen, then in both instances, you should contact us.
If it is the Birmingham Newman University Library website that is causing problems, then please use our website feedback and error reporting form. For issues with content on external sites (i.e. not with 'newman.ac.uk' in its address), please contact us by email, explaining the issue in as much detail as you can.
Last reviewed: 05 September 2024