Website Accessibility Policy
The Institute of Criminology is fully committed to making accessible for all users, information and resources that are available via the web. All pages are written to comply with the necessary legislation, code of practice, and University policy detailed below.
- The University Disability website and Equal Opportunity Policy emphasise the University's commitment that it should be open to all who can benefit from studying or working here, determined only by personal merit, by performance and/or by criteria related to each particular post.
- The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Code of Practice states that institutions should consider disabled students in every aspect of planning and administration of academic and social activities.
- The Disability Discrimination Acts (1995 & 2005) and Special Education Needs and Disability Act [SENDA] (2001) - which amended the first act to include education, the latter became law in May 2001 with teaching and learning components falling under legislation in September 2002. SENDA legislates that it is an offence to discriminate against a disabled person by treating him or her less favourably than others for a reason relating to their disability. For the purposes of the legislation a disabled person is defined as someone who has a physical or mental impairment, which has an effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. The Act covers all aspects of an institution's student services. 'Student services' is given a broad meaning of 'services of any description which are provided wholly or mainly for students' and will obviously include educational services such as teaching and learning provision. Discrimination can also occur where an institution fails to make a 'reasonable adjustment' where the disabled student is placed at a 'substantial disadvantage' in comparison with someone who is not disabled and such failure cannot be 'justified'. [See synopsis of Acts and links to in full]
The University favours the principles of usability and universal design, which will be of benefit of all users. By following these principles and incorporating techniques to ensure information and resources are accessible with assistive technologies, separate resources for disabled users should not be required.