University of Cambridge Online Cambridge Advance Online

Accessibility

Last updated: 1 July 2025

This statement was independently verified by ASPIRE(Opens in a new window) on 30 November 2022, achieving gold standard with a score of 100%.

This accessibility statement applies to the advanceonline.cam.ac.uk website. This website is managed by Cambridge University Press & Assessment(Opens in a new window).

Our courses are delivered through Canvas LMS, for more information please read our accessibility policy and the Canvas LMS Accessibility Statement(Opens in a new window).

We want everyone who visits our website and undertakes one of our courses to feel welcome and find the experience rewarding.

We are committed to ensuring we do not discriminate against users with disabilities in relation to access to information, in accordance with the Equality Act 2010(Opens in a new window) (UK), European Accessibility Act(Opens in a new window) (EU) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act(Opens in a new window) (US) amongst others.

We are continually working to make our platform and content as accessible and usable as possible. To help us make it a positive place for everyone, this website undergoes regular testing against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2(Opens in a new window) AA.  These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities, and user friendly for everyone. The guidelines have three levels of accessibility (A, AA and AAA). Our target is level AA.

Throughout the design and development workflows we ensure we consider users with accessibility needs. We also routinely audit and make fixes for accessibility issues that we may have missed, using internal and external auditors.

Reading experience

You should be able to:

  • Change colours, contrast levels and fonts by adjusting browser settings. Different browsers include these options under different menus – they can usually be found under Tools, Settings, Options, Content or Reading View depending on the browser. There are also browser extensions specifically dedicated to changing colours and contrast options, e.g. Change Colors(Opens in a new window) for Google Chrome and Color Changer(Opens in a new window) for Mozilla Firefox

  • Zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen for most of the website. The website should work well in both portrait and landscape modes

  • View all content with sufficient colour contrast (the minimum ratio we aim for is 4.5:1)

  • Navigate all of the website using just a keyboard. All page elements have a visible focus state indicator

  • Navigate the page in logical reading order with the ability to skip to headings, regions and hyperlinks. There are also multiple ways to navigate the entire site including navigation menus and crumb trails

  • Listen to all of the website using a screen reader (e.g. the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver), including image descriptions for images that convey meaning, form elements and links with a descriptive label

  • Understand the meaning of images and icons described by meaningful alternative text which explains its purpose within the context of the content. Some content may not have text alternatives available for figures and other graphics. If you encounter an image that does not have a text alternative, and you need one, you can request alternative text for specific images by contacting us via the details below. Images that are decorative or incidental are given a ‘null’ alt attribute so they are properly ignored by screen readers

  • Understand the function of all form elements. All form fields have descriptive labels which explain their meaning and any that are mandatory to complete the form. If a particular form field has additional instruction then this is clearly provided and available to users of assistive technologies. In addition, buttons on forms have a descriptive value which explain their function before a form is submitted

  • Easily identify and understand links. Links are styled differently to standard text used on the site: they are underlined and represented in a different colour to the surrounding text. Links have also been created in a way that allows them to be meaningful to all users even when taken out of context

  • Use text to speech tools to read out website content in both PDF and HTML format (e.g. ClaroRead for Chrome browser). Text to speech tools are built into some browsers (e.g. Microsoft Edge) and are available as a plug-in for many others. Your phone, tablet or laptop accessibility settings are also likely to provide text to speech functionality

  • Skip directly to main content and other important pages

  • Turn on captions for pre-recorded media content.

If you have a disability then AbilityNet’s My Computer My Way website(Opens in a new window) has advice on individual adjustments you can make to your device to make it easier to use.

Available formats

All of our courses are available in HTML format.

Copying and printing

The absence of Digital Rights Management (DRM) software on our platform means assistive technology users should experience no barriers caused by print or copy restrictions – however normal copyright conditions still apply and can be found in our  terms of use.

What to do if you can’t access parts of this website

We operate a policy of continuous improvement when it comes to the accessibility of our content. Please contact us if you have any difficulty accessing any of the information it contains or if you have any suggestion as to how we might improve its accessibility.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you have difficulty using this site, please get in touch. We’d like to hear from you in any of the following ways:

We aim to respond to any requests or queries within 48 hours.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2(Opens in a new window) AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible functionality and/or content

  1. Some videos do not currently provide audio description or media alternatives. However, where possible, descriptive transcript is provided as an alternative. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.2.5 Audio Description (Prerecorded).

  2. The 3rd party Shareaholic social media sharing tool has some known accessibility issues. For example, it is difficult to navigate through the additional list of social sharing options with the keyboard due to lack of focus indicator and unpredictable focus order. This fails WCAG success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order and 2.4.7 Focus Visible.

Browser and mobile device support

This site is optimised for modern browsers including Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome. You may experience unexpected behaviour in other browsers, although we use fully validated code which should work on any browser. However please note that we no longer support Internet Explorer 11.

This site is responsive, it re-organises itself depending on the screen size and orientation of the device being used to view it. We test the experience on various devices including most popular IOS, Android and MS Windows phones and tablets.

Screen reader compatibility

The Cambridge Advance Online platform has been optimised for the following screen reader and browser combinations:

Desktop screen readers

  • VoiceOver with Safari (macOS)

  • NVDA with Firefox

  • JAWS with Chrome

  • Narrator with Edge

Mobile screen readers

  • VoiceOver with Safari (iOS)

  • TalkBack with Chrome (Android)

Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)

The Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is a document which evaluates how accessible a particular product is according to the Section 508 Standards in the US. It is a self-disclosing document produced by the vendor which details each aspect of WCAG 2.0 requirements and how the product supports each criteria. Download VPAT for Cambridge Advance Online (PDF)(Opens in a new window)

How we test this website

This website undergoes regular testing against the above guidelines by development and quality assurance teams. Working with in house accessibility specialists, any actions derived from the testing are taken and prioritised into our future work.

We also conduct testing with users who have a variety of different types of disability to ensure the website is optimised for use with assistive technologies.

In addition, we work with the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) who completed their latest audit process for the site against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1(Opens in a new window) AA standard in January 2025.

Useful Links