Student accommodation portal (Kx) accessibility statement

Kx provides services to manage student accommodation, conferences and catering requests. This accessibility statement applies to the Kx Student Accommodation Portal located at https://accommodation.lancaster.ac.uk/Portal/default.aspx

This website is run by Kinetic Software. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader

We also try to make the content as simple as possible to understand.

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:

  • Some key functionality is not keyboard accessible.
  • Some form inputs and actions do not have an accessible name or label.
  • Some form inputs do not identify purpose.
  • Forms do not have sufficient error identification or status messages.
  • The session timeout is not adjustable or extendable and will cause an unexpected change.
  • Some elements do not have visible focus indication.
  • Some elements and links do not have sufficient contrast to surrounding text and backgrounds.
  • Pages of the site do not declare the language.
  • Some functionality of the site requires “drag and drop” without having a keyboard accessible alternative.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, you can request it:

Undergraduate Accommodation:

Postgraduate Accommodation:

We will consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

What to do if your problem isn’t dealt with satisfactory

If you have contacted us about an accessibility problem (e.g. because you needed information in a different format, or you think we're not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations) but you feel that this has not been dealt with satisfactorily we want to know.

The first stage would be to raise your concern informally. The aim of this stage is to achieve a quick and easy solution for you. It would be appropriate to take the concern through the relevant contact listed above for reporting an accessibility problem.

But if we do not deal with your concern satisfactorily you can take it through to a formal complaint. See our Concerns, complaints and enforcement information.

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

Kinetic Software is committed to making its website 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 (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Some images and iconography have no alternative text. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1.
  • Some iconography is used as visual cues without accessible labels. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 and 1.3.3.
  • Some form inputs do not identify intent. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.5.
  • Some text, links or iconography do not have sufficient contrast to their background or surrounding text. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3 and 1.4.11.
  • Some key elements and functionality are not keyboard accessible. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.1.1
  • The website implements a 19 minute session timeout with automatic redirect using a http-equiv="refresh" meta tag. There is no warning or way of adjusting/extending this redirect. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.2.1.
  • Some repeatable content blocks such as carousels, room preference lists cannot be skipped. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.1.
  • Some elements that are keyboard accessible do not have focus indication. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.7.
  • Many elements and inputs do not have accessible labels or names. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.5.3 and 3.3.2 and 4.1.2.
  • Some functionality of the Application Preferences page requires dragging only and a keyboard accessible alternative has not been implemented. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.5.7.
  • The language of the pages throughout are not made available. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.1.1 and 3.1.2.
  • Form error handling is poorly implemented and therefore no error identification is present until forms are submitted, the error messages that are then displayed on page load are not accessible Status Messages and therefore do not announce themselves to screen readers for example. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.3.1, 3.3.3 and 4.1.3.

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

PDFs and other documents

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.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 2nd December 2024.

This website was last tested on 2nd December 2024 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

The test was carried out Kinetic Software. Using evaluation methods of Lighthouse, WAVE and Manual Testing. The most viewed pages were tested using both automated testing tools and manual testing by our Professional Services team. A further audit of the website was carried out to the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.