Accessibility statement for Talis Aspire at Bristol

This accessibility statement applies to the University of Bristol’s Resource List provision via Talis Aspire. 

This website is run by the University of Bristol. 

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

  • navigate most of the document using just a keyboard 
  • navigate most of the document using speech recognition software 
  • listen to most of the document using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver) 
  • use screen magnifiers and speech-recognition software, such as ZoomText or Read&Write 

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

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

On this page

How accessible this website is

Our policy is to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 (WCAG) at Level AA.  

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

  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text 
  • some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software. 
  • you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader 
  • Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. 

Feedback and contact information 

Please contact Library Services if you have an accessibility query including: 

  • if you are experiencing issues with accessing information or using the website 
  • if you find an accessibility issue not listed in this statement 
  • if you have positive feedback on the accessibility considerations made. 

For more information on accessible library services, please view our accessibility and support pages. 

Individual PDF scans can be re-scanned to make them more accessible for specific users on request. If you need a more accessible version of a scanned PDF document, please contact Library Support. 

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, email us at library-enquiries@bristol.ac.uk. 

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). 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility 

The University of Bristol is committed to making resource list provision accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. 

Compliance status 

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliance(s) and/or the exemptions listed below. 

Non-accessible content 

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reason(s): 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations 

Some scanned pdfs are images of text and have no text alternatives. This presentation of the text is essential to the information being conveyed. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.5. 

We plan to replace all non-compliant pdfs with OCR compliant versions by December 2029. 

Other than the main navigation, there is no alternative mechanism (such as a sitemap) to move around the application. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.5 (multiple ways). 

There is no means for user-generated content to specify whether it is presented in a different language to that of the page. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.1.2 (language of parts). 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility 

From our resource list supplier:  

Talis Education Ltd is committed to making its websites accessible. New features are designed to be accessible from their introduction. Manual testing is carried out with new features to verify that there are no obvious pitfalls. Automated testing is being added to development processes to prevent inaccessible code from reaching the customer. Tools such as axe DevTools, WebAIM’s WAVE Evaluation Tool, ARC from TPGi, and Microsoft’s Accessibility Insights for Web are used to try and detect a range of issues. We will continue to advocate for accessibility improvements in external products like Product Fruits to ensure all areas of Talis Aspire are accessible, and we will update the TalisAspire accessibility statement as and when improvements are made.  

Older PDFs which are not OCR-compliant are being re-scanned and re-uploaded where possible to provide OCR-compliant versions, prioritising Essential reading. This project is expected to be complete by December 2029, at which point all scanned documents within our Talis instance will be, at minimum, OCR-compatible. 

Preparation of this accessibility statement 

This statement was prepared on 18/03/2026. It was last reviewed on 18/03/2026. 

This website was last tested on 24/09/2021 against the WCAG 2.1 AA standards. This test was carried out by Talis Education Ltd. In 2020 a high-level audit was performed by AbilityNet. Subsequently, more detailed testing was performed in-house by Talis following training of their staff by AbilityNet. To test the site for this report, they used Microsoft's Accessibility Insights for Web extension to detect violations on each page and then worked through key workflows with assistive technologies. A further audit of the pdf content on the website was carried out to the WCAG 2.2 AA standard on 18/03/2026 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. The test was carried out by the University of Bristol, using a manual comparison of several randomly selected PDF scans against the WCAG 2.2 criteria.  

Talis Aspire VPAT