Qualtrics is a third party platform that provides Imperial College London with a surveying tool for staff and students to build and distribute surveys, and for a wider audience to complete surveys.

The scope of this statement covers the backend system for survey creators and frontend surveys for survey respondents.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this platform and complete the surveys.

The features of Qualtrics that aid accessibility for survey respondents:

• Screen readers are supported.
• Browser zoom are supported.
• Accessible to mobile screen readers:
  • screen readers to navigate and exit the dialog.
  • Allows text within buttons and also the type of the item (e.g., button) to be read.

These features of Qualtrics aid survey creators:

• Qualtrics Accessibility Checker. This will highlight any inaccessible question types as well as survey configuration settings that should be modified for better accessibility.
• All creative elements are tab-able and clickable via keyboard, but do not support arrow keys or others.
• Easy to define Alt Text
• ARIA labels for button controls.
• Colour contrasts for elements within the creative itself: While Qualtrics cannot provide direct contrast guidance, users have full control to pick and choose the appropriate colour for creative elements.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible Qualtrics platform is

Qualtrics only complies up to WCAG 2.0 AA standards currently.

Therefore there are some areas that are less accessible than the Accessibility Regulations 2018.

The Qualtrics survey creator interface is currently not accessible to screen reader users and may not be fully accessible to keyboard-only users or screen magnifier users.

Qualtrics utilises a number of inaccessible question types that some respondents may not be able to complete with assistive technology such as screen readers. You can find out about inaccessible questions on the Qualtrics website.

What we do about known issues

We are working to highlight accessibility issues with Qualtrics and work with them to improve the platform for our users.

If you have any issues or concerns with creating surveys please contact our accessibility email to log any issues, which we can pass to the supplier to resolve.

At Imperial we work to achieve and maintain WCAG 2.1 AA standards, but it is not always possible for all our content to be accessible.

Where content is not accessible, we will state a reason, warn users and offer alternatives.

We are working with our content creators and web editors to ensure that all content is accessible. You can see our accessible content guidance online. 

If you have any issues completing a survey please contact the survey creator who can offer an alternative version.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Qualtrics Accessibility Conformance Report (pdf)

Imperial College London is committed to making its website accessible in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Qualtrics is not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. They are working towards full compliance. They are currently compliant to WCAG 2.0 AA.

The non-accessible sections are listed below.

Non accessible content

Content

The content built within Qualtrics can be made accessible by the survey creator, but Qualtrics has a number of inaccessible question types that some respondents may not be able to complete with assistive technology such as screen readers. You can find out about inaccessible questions on the Qualtrics website.

Qualtrics is reliant on the survey creator to produce accessible content.

A number of things the survey creator can do to create accessible surveys include:

• The survey author is required to provide all text alternatives during the creation of the survey.
• The survey author is required to provide alternative and/or closed captioning to media.
• The survey author is required to provide alternative timings for timed content.
• The survey author is required to supply controls for pause, stop and hide content – like videos.
• The survey author is required to provide a page title.
• The survey author is required to provide prerecorded audio descriptions.
• The survey author is required to organize the data and questions with appropriate headings and labels.
• The required cognitive ability depends on the questions asked by the survey author, so language should be considered.

Imperial College London editors are trained in creating accessible surveys. 

Templates

Each organisation has their own survey theme(s) and colours can be made compliant.

iFrames

• Qualtrics can be embedded into the Imperial College website using iFrames. You can see our accessibility statement to include information regarding these iFrames.
• Within Qualtrics platform if embedded targets are being used, then users can right click on the embedded target and add an iframe title.
• If embedded windows are being used in the Intercept advanced options, users can add an iframe title.

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

• The Qualtrics survey creator interface is currently not accessible to screen reader users and may not be fully accessible to keyboard-only users or screen magnifier users.

As Quatlrics is a third party supplier they are exempt from the September 2018 regulations for Public Sector websites.

Reporting accessibility issues

If you need information from a Qualtrics survey in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille then please contact the survey owner in the first instance, who will endeavour to get back to you before the survey expires.

If you find any accessibility issues not listed on this page, please contact accessibility@imperial.ac.uk.

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).

Last updated

This statement was prepared on 24 August 2020 when it was first published. It was last updated on 24 August 2020.