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Life Sciences (Vepple) accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to the Life Sciences (Vepple) website

The Life Sciences (Vepple) website (https://lifesciences.virtualexperience.ucl.ac.uk/) is run by University College London (UCL). It is designed in line with recognised good practice, and training in creating accessible content is provided to all site owners and editors. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website, which means that you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate the solution using just a keyboard
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
  • Website text has been made as simple as possible to understand.

There are a number of customisation options for your browser and device that could help you use this website and other websites more effectively. AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. You can see a full list of issues we currently know about in the non-accessible content section of this statement.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF (Portable Document Format), large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact us:

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 contact us:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within five working days. 

Read tips on contacting organisations about inaccessible websites.

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

University College London is committed to making its websites 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-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

This section covers issues that we need to fix and are working to do so. 

Life Sciences (Vepple) is a third-party system supplied by Revolution Viewing which means that some aspects of its accessibility are outside of our immediate control.  This accessibility statement has therefore been completed with reference to the Vepple Core Features Accessibility Statement. 

The administrative interface Vepple uses is run by Wordpress whose Accessibility Coding Standards document indicate that the core Content Management System is compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA standard. Vepple modify Wordpress with a number of custom and 3rd-party plugins and it's possible that some of these may not meet full compliance currently.

If you find an issue that we have yet to identify, please contact us using one of the routes described in the ‘Reporting accessibility problems with this website’ section of this statement.

Disproportionate burden

At this time, we have not made any disproportionate burden claims.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. We are currently working on fixing these essential documents or replacing them with accessible html web pages. 

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Video content

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. We also have some existing pre-recorded video content that was published before the 23rd of September 2020. This content is also exempt from the regulations. All new video content we produce will have appropriate captions, audio descriptions and transcripts, as necessary.

Online maps

Our service includes the use of online maps to show certain geographical information. These are not used for navigational purposes and are exempt under the regulations. If you require the information presented in an online map in a different format, please contact us to discuss reasonable adjustments.

Third-party content

Our websites contain third-party content. We do not have control over and are not responsible for the accessibility of this content, but we make best endeavours to work with the third-party to improve its accessibility. This may include:

  • links to non-UCL websites
  • content/functionality on our website
  • content hosted on other websites, such as social media sites
  • documents which are sent to us and uploaded, or comments left on pages by members of the public

To help accessibility compliance across the sector, University College London supports searchBOX, a centralised, independent directory of third-party accessibility information. 

searchBOX catalogues the contact information and accessibility statements of third-party suppliers, enables the sharing of community-generated accessibility statements, and allows users to map their supplier ecosystem. 

Users can access third-party accessibility statements using the free searchBOX Finder service. 

UCL encourages all our partners and suppliers to support this effort by ensuring that their accessibility information is included in the searchBOX directory. 

Our testing processes

We tested the website using a combination of manual and automated checks alongside reference to the Vepple Core Features Accessibility Statement. If you find an issue we have not yet identified, you can report it to us. We’ll pass this information to the website owner who will review the issue, make sure it is included in our plan to fix issues and add it into the accessibility statement when it is next updated.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

UCL are working with Revolution Viewing on further accessibility improvements to the accessibility of the platform. In addition, for the 360 degree viewing functions of Life Sciences (Vepple) we have prepared text based alternatives describing the visual aspects of each location.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 9 January 2022. This website was last tested on 1 May 2022. The test was carried out by Revolution Viewing.