Accessibility Statement

BEYOND BARRIERS works to make research careers more inclusive. The same commitment applies to this website: we want as many people as possible to be able to read and use it, including people with visual, hearing, motor, cognitive, neurological and learning disabilities.

This page explains the accessibility features we have built in, how to adjust the site to your needs, and how to tell us about an accessibility problem. It describes our intentions and current features; it is not a formal conformance evaluation, and we do not claim compliance with any specific accessibility standard. We will keep improving the site as the project develops.

Our Commitment to Accessible Communication

Accessibility is part of how BEYOND BARRIERS works, not an afterthought. The project studies barriers that exclude people from research careers, so the website itself should not create new barriers. We aim to write in plain language, structure pages so they are easy to navigate, and provide content in formats that work for different readers and assistive technologies.

Keyboard Navigation

You can use every part of this website with a keyboard alone. The main menu, dropdown menus, buttons, the search panel, the “Search by voice” button, and all links can be reached and activated with the Tab key, opened and closed with Enter, Space or the arrow keys as appropriate, and dismissed with Esc.

• A “Skip to main content” link appears the first time you press Tab. It lets you jump straight to the page content, past the repeated header and navigation.
• When a menu or the search panel is open, you can move through its items with Tab or the arrow keys, and press Esc to close it.
• The keyboard focus is always shown with a visible focus indicator, so you can see which element is active.

If you find a place where the keyboard becomes stuck (a “keyboard trap”), please tell us using the contact details below.

Text Resizing and Reflow

You can enlarge the text in your browser or operating system settings. The page layout is designed to reflow so that, when you increase the text size, content wraps to fit the screen instead of being cut off, overlapping, or forcing you to scroll sideways to read a line.

• In most browsers you can zoom with Ctrl + +(or Cmd + + on a Mac). Text and images enlarge together.
• You can also change the default text size in your browser settings or through your operating system’s display options.

Readable, Plain-Language Content

We write page headings so they describe the section that follows, keep paragraphs short, and leave enough space between lines and sections for comfortable reading. Where a page uses a technical or specialist term, we explain it in plain language nearby — for example, the Methodology page includes a plain-language glossary for research terms. We do this without changing the project’s intellectual substance.

Screen Readers and Assistive Technology

Pages use semantic headings in a logical order and landmark regions (such as the site header, main content, and footer) so screen-reader users can navigate by region and heading. Buttons and links are given descriptive accessible names, expandable menus communicate their open or closed state, and images have text alternatives where they help understanding. We avoid adding unnecessary assistive markup that could get in the way.

Color and Contrast

We choose text and interactive elements with sufficient contrast against their background, and we do not communicate important information through color alone. Status labels on the Results & Resources page (for example “Planned” or “In progress”) are written as text, not shown only as a color.

Reduced Motion

If you have set your device or browser to reduce motion, the website respects that preference and turns off non-essential animations and transitions. You do not need to change any setting on this site for that to take effect.

Images

Informative images are given useful text alternatives that describe what the image communicates. Images that are purely decorative are marked so that screen readers skip them. We do not use image filenames as text alternatives.

Search and Voice Search

The site search opens from the visible Search bar in the header. You can type a query, move through the results with the arrow keys, and open a result with Enter. The “Search by voice” button beside the Search bar lets you speak your search instead of typing it; recognized speech is placed into the search field so you can review or edit it before searching. Both the text search and the voice button are keyboard accessible and labeled for screen readers. If voice search is not supported by your browser, you can always type your search instead.

Multimedia (Video and Audio)

The website does not currently host video or audio. When we publish multimedia in the future, we will provide captions and/or transcripts and accessible controls, so that people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or who prefer reading can access the same content. We will not present information in a video or audio only without a text alternative.

Accessible Resources and Alternative Formats

As the project produces deliverables, frameworks, guidelines and tools, we will publish them through the Results & Resources page. We aim to provide documents in accessible, screen-reader-friendly formats and to offer alternative formats where available — for example a plain-language summary alongside a technical report. Where a resource is not yet available in an accessible format, please contact us and we will do our best to provide it.

How to Report an Accessibility Problem

We are still improving the accessibility of this website and we welcome your feedback. If something is hard to use, does not work with your assistive technology, or you need a resource in a different format, please tell us.

Email: info@beyondbarriersproject.eu

Please include the page address (URL) and a short description of the problem, so we can find and fix it. We will acknowledge your message and work to address the issue.