Accessibility

· 13 checks — Landmarks, headings, alt text, forms, and link quality rolled into one auditable list.

SCORE

GRADE

FIX

REVIEW

PASS

INFO

Checks

5 PASS 3 REVIEW 5 FIX

Favicon & Branding

Action

3 icon(s) detected

FIX

3 icon(s) detected

favicon.ico present at site root

HTML icon links detected

No apple-touch-icon detected

iOS devices use this when users add your site to their home screen. Add <link rel='apple-touch-icon' sizes='180x180' href='/apple-touch-icon.png'>.

SVG favicon detected — scales perfectly to any size

✓ favicon.ico Present

✓ PNG Icons Present

✗ Apple Touch Missing

✓ SVG Favicon Present

✗ Manifest Icons Missing

✗ Multiple Sizes Missing

Web Manifest

Action

Not found

FIX

Not found

No web manifest found

No manifest at standard paths (/manifest.json, /site.webmanifest). A manifest is optional but enables PWA features like home screen installation and standalone display.

No web manifest found.

Dark Mode Support

Action

Theme color only

FIX

Theme color only

Theme-color present but no dark variant

A theme-color is set but no dark-specific variant was found. The browser toolbar may not adapt for dark mode users.

Got: #440099

No dark mode signals detected

Consider adding CSS with @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) and <meta name='color-scheme' content='light dark'>.

Detection limited to meta tags and inline styles

External CSS files may contain prefers-color-scheme rules not visible to this scan.

Dark ModePartial Dark Mode

color-scheme meta Not set ✗Dark theme-color Not set ✗CSS indicators Not detected ✗

Detection limited to meta tags and inline styles.

Print Stylesheet

Action

No print styles

FIX

No print styles

No print-specific styles detected

When users print this page, they get the screen layout including navigation and non-essential elements. Add @media print rules to hide navigation and optimize layout for paper.

Print Stylesheet No Print Styles

Print stylesheet Not found ✗Inline @media print Not detected ✗

Navigation UX

Action

2 navigation pattern(s)

FIX

2 navigation pattern(s)

Search functionality detected

Got: role-search

Skip navigation link detected

4 navigation landmark(s) detected

Breadcrumbs

Search role='search' landmark

Skip Link Skip link detected

Labeled Navigation 4 <nav> element(s)

Hamburger Menu

Sticky Navigation Cannot reliably detect (CSS-based)

3 of 6 testable patterns navigation patterns detected. Strong navigation UX with multiple discovery paths.

Heading Hierarchy

51 headings, 1 skip(s)

REVIEW

51 headings, 1 skip(s)

Single H1 present

Heading level skipped: H2 → H4 (missing H3)

Skipping heading levels breaks the document outline. Screen readers may interpret missing levels as structural errors.

1 empty heading(s)

Empty headings appear in the document outline but provide no information.

H2 Courses
H2 Studying at Sheffield
H2 Student life
H2 Accommodation
H2 Visit
H2 Apply
H2 International students
H2 Fees and funding
H2 Research at Sheffield
H2 Postgraduate research
H2 Expertise
H2 Our impact
H2 Contact
H2 Partnerships
H2 International
H2 Alumni
H2 Philanthropy
H2 Schools and colleges
H2 Contact us
H2 Hospitality
H2 About the University
H2 Schools, departments and services
H2 Studying at Sheffield
H2 Hospitality
H1 The University of Sheffield homepage
H2 Find a course
H2 Rankings
H3 A world top-100 university
H3 University of the Year for Student Experience
H3 1st in the Russell Group
H2 Study
H3 Explore undergraduate study at Sheffield
H3 Search for a postgraduate course
H3 PhD study
H3 Sheffield Live online events
H3 A world top-100 university
H2 Research
H3 Turning sunlight into greener aviation fuel
H3 Research that changes lives
H3 Our impact
H3 Feed your curiosity
H2 News
H3 Defence Minister praises University of Sheffield’s role in supporting UK security through R&D
H3 University of Sheffield students tackle overlooked women’s health crisis
H3 New life-giving brain cancer clinical trials to be offered to people in Sheffield
H3 UK’s first community-designed AI awareness campaign launched by University of Sheffield researchers
H2 Events
H2 Collaborate
H4 The University of Sheffield skipped
H2 Footer menu
H2 (empty)

Skipping heading levels breaks the document outline. Screen readers may interpret missing levels as structural errors.

Why this matters

Skipping heading levels breaks the document outline — screen-reader users lose track of section nesting.

Learn more ▾

Screen reader users navigate by jumping between headings (H1 → H2 → H3). Skipping (H1 → H3) breaks the sense of hierarchy. Use sequential levels even if you don't like the default styling — restyle with CSS instead. WCAG 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships) treats this as an A failure.

Source: WCAG 2.1 SC 1.3.1 / W3C WAI

Empty headings appear in the document outline but provide no information.

Why this matters

Empty <hN> tags break the document outline — screen-reader users navigating by heading hit dead silence.

Source: WCAG 2.4.6

Link & Button Quality

1 issue(s) across 200 links and 7 buttons

REVIEW

1 issue(s) across 200 links and 7 buttons

1 link(s) with no accessible text

Links without text are announced as raw URLs by screen readers.

Got: a#main-content

20 image-only link(s) without alt text

Image-only links need alt text on the image (or aria-label on the link) so screen readers can announce them.

Got: a[href="/undergraduate/home"]; a[href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/postgraduate/taught"]; a[href="/postgraduate/phd"]; a[href="/study/online-events"]; a[href="/about/world-top-100"]; a[href="/research/features/turning-sunlight-greener-aviation-fuel"]; a[href="/research/centres/cross-faculty"]; a[href="/vision/our-pillars/research"]; a[href="https://player.sheffield.ac.uk/"]; a[href="https://sheffield.ac.uk/news/defence-minister-praises-university-sheffields-r…"] (+10 more)

179 link(s) with descriptive text

200 links

1 empty

0 generic text

0 new tab

0 empty buttons

Element	Text	Issue	Suggested Fix
	(empty)	empty	Add link text or aria-label
/undergraduate/home	Explore undergraduate study at…	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/postgraduate…	Search for a postgraduate cour…	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
/postgraduate/phd	PhD study	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
/study/online-events	Sheffield Live online events	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
/about/world-top-100	A world top-100 university	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
/research/features/turning-sunlight-gree…	Professor Meihong Wang (School…	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
/research/centres/cross-faculty	Research that changes lives	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
/vision/our-pillars/research	Our impact	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
https://player.sheffield.ac.uk/	Feed your curiosity	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
https://sheffield.ac.uk/news/defence-min…	Defence Minister praises Unive…	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
https://sheffield.ac.uk/news/university-…	University of Sheffield studen…	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
https://sheffield.ac.uk/news/new-life-gi…	New life-giving brain cancer c…	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
https://sheffield.ac.uk/news/uks-first-c…	UK’s first community-designe…	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
/visit-us/home	Open days	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
/whatson/current	What's on	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
https://player.sheffield.ac.uk/	Catch up: events and research …	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
/graduation/undergraduate-july2026	Summer graduation	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
/collaborate/home	Business and research partners…	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
/internationalpartnerships/home	International partnerships	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image
/city-region/home	Our role in the city and regio…	img no alt	Add alt attribute to the image

186 links and buttons have descriptive text

Links without text are announced as raw URLs by screen readers.

a#main-content

Why this matters

Links with no accessible text (empty <a></a>, image-only no alt, icon-only no aria-label) are unidentifiable to screen readers.

Source: WCAG 2.1 SC 2.4.4

Image-only links need alt text on the image (or aria-label on the link) so screen readers can announce them.

a[href="/undergraduate/home"]; a[href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/postgraduate/taught"]; a[href="/postgraduate/phd"]; a[href="/study/online-events"]; a[href="/about/world-top-100"]; a[href="/research/features/turning-sunlight-greener-aviation-fuel"]; a[href="/research/centres/cross-faculty"]; a[href="/vision/our-pillars/research"]; a[href="https://player.sheffield.ac.uk/"]; a[href="https://sheffield.ac.uk/news/defence-minister-praises-university-sheffields-r…"] (+10 more)

Why this matters

Image-only links with no alt are unidentifiable to screen-reader users — link's destination is invisible.

Source: WCAG 2.1 SC 2.4.4

404 Error Page

HTTP 404, custom page

REVIEW

HTTP 404, custom page

Correct 404 status code returned

Got: HTTP 404

Custom styled 404 page

Navigation links present on 404 page

Homepage link present on 404 page

404 Page Quality ✓ Custom 404 Page

Status Code HTTP 404 ✓Page Title 404 Error | University of Sheffield ✓Custom Styling ✓Navigation ✓Homepage Link ✓Search Form ✗

A+

Landmark Structure

10 landmarks

PASS

10 landmarks

<main> landmark present

4 <nav> landmark(s) found

All <nav> elements are properly labeled

Skip navigation link present

Search landmark present

Page Structure — as a screen reader sees it

A+

Alt Text Quality

All 32 images OK

PASS

All 32 images OK

20 decorative image(s) correctly marked

12 image(s) with good alt text

32 images 12 good alt text 20 decorative

All images have appropriate alt text.

A+

Form Accessibility

All 3 controls labeled

PASS

All 3 controls labeled

3 control(s) properly labeled

3 controls

3 labeled

0 placeholder only

0 unlabeled

Control	Type	Label	Method
#site-search-box	search	Search our site	aria-label
query	text	Search text	aria-label
#prospectusYear	select	Level and year of entry:	for/id

A+

Color Contrast (Screenshot)

20 text elements analyzed, 0 fail WCAG AA

PASS

Analyzes text contrast against the actual rendered page, including background images, gradients, and overlays that CSS-based tools cannot detect.

20 pass

Show all checked elements (20)

Element	Ratio	Required	FG	BG	Result
h1 The University of Sh…	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h2 Find a course	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h2 Rankings	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h2 Study	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h2 Research	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h2 News	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h2 Events	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h2 Collaborate	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h2 Footer menu	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h3 A world top-100 univ…	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h3 University of the Ye…	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h3 1st in the Russell G…	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h3 Explore undergraduat…	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h3 Search for a postgra…	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h3 PhD study	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h3 Sheffield Live onlin…	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h3 A world top-100 univ…	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h3 Turning sunlight int…	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h3 Research that change…	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass
h3 Our impact	21.00:1	3.0:1	#000000	#FFFFFF	Pass

Methodology: The top 20 text elements by font size were checked. Background color was sampled from the desktop screenshot using a 5-point pattern. WCAG 2.1 AA requires 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text.

A+

Lighthouse Accessibility Audits

Score 99/100 — 2 failing, 29 passed

PASS

Accessibility

These checks highlight opportunities to improve the accessibility of your web app. Automatic detection can only detect a subset of issues and does not guarantee the accessibility of your web app, so manual testing is also encouraged.

Navigation

Properly ordered headings that do not skip levels convey the semantic structure of the page, making it easier to navigate and understand when using assistive technologies. Learn more about heading order.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Failing Elements
The University of Sheffield `footer > div.row > div.large-9 > h4.footer-heading`

These are opportunities to improve keyboard navigation in your application.

Visible text labels that do not match the accessible name can result in a confusing experience for screen reader users. Learn more about accessible names.

Why this matters

Performance issues directly impact user engagement and conversion rates.

Failing Elements
Explore undergraduate study at Sheffield Make Sheffield the start of something… `div.block > div.row > div.medium-6 > a.signpost-card`
Search for a postgraduate course A masters from Sheffield means in-depth knowl… `div.block > div.row > div.medium-6 > a.signpost-card`
PhD study At Sheffield, you’ll join a supportive community of scholars who sha… `div.block > div.row > div.medium-4 > a.signpost-card`
Sheffield Live online events Our weekly online sessions help you find out abou… `div.block > div.row > div.medium-4 > a.signpost-card`
A world top-100 university We are proud to be recognised as one of the top 100… `div.row > div.medium-4 > div.block > a.signpost-card`
Research that changes lives Our centres of excellence are taking an interdisci… `div.block > div.row > div.medium-4 > a.signpost-card`
Our impact Our researchers are making life-changing discoveries and solving pr… `div.block > div.row > div.medium-4 > a.signpost-card`
Feed your curiosity The University of Sheffield Player is the place to discove… `div.block > div.row > div.medium-4 > a.signpost-card`
Defence Minister praises University of Sheffield’s role in supporting UK securi… `div.featured-news > div.views-element-container > div.newscard > a`
University of Sheffield students tackle overlooked women’s health crisis Urgen… `div.featured-news > div.views-element-container > div.newscard > a`
New life-giving brain cancer clinical trials to be offered to people in Sheffie… `div.featured-news > div.views-element-container > div.newscard > a`
UK’s first community-designed AI awareness campaign launched by University of S… `div.featured-news > div.views-element-container > div.newscard > a`

○Interactive controls are keyboard focusable

○Interactive elements indicate their purpose and state

○The page has a logical tab order

○Visual order on the page follows DOM order

○User focus is not accidentally trapped in a region

○The user's focus is directed to new content added to the page

○HTML5 landmark elements are used to improve navigation

○Offscreen content is hidden from assistive technology

○Custom controls have associated labels

○Custom controls have ARIA roles

●`[aria-*]` attributes match their roles

●`[aria-hidden="true"]` is not present on the document `<body>`

●`[role]`s have all required `[aria-*]` attributes

●Elements with an ARIA `[role]` that require children to contain a specific `[role]` have all required children.

●`[role]` values are valid

●`[aria-*]` attributes have valid values

●`[aria-*]` attributes are valid and not misspelled

●Buttons have an accessible name

●Image elements have `[alt]` attributes

●Form elements have associated labels

●`[user-scalable="no"]` is not used in the `<meta name="viewport">` element and the `[maximum-scale]` attribute is not less than 5.

●Select elements have associated label elements.

●`[accesskey]` values are unique

●`button`, `link`, and `menuitem` elements have accessible names

●ARIA attributes are used as specified for the element's role

●Elements with `role="dialog"` or `role="alertdialog"` have accessible names.

●`[aria-hidden="true"]` elements do not contain focusable descendents

●Elements use only permitted ARIA attributes

●Background and foreground colors have a sufficient contrast ratio

●Document has a `<title>` element

●`<html>` element has a `[lang]` attribute

●`<html>` element has a valid value for its `[lang]` attribute

●Links have a discernible name

●Lists contain only `<li>` elements and script supporting elements (`<script>` and `<template>`).

●List items (`<li>`) are contained within `<ul>`, `<ol>` or `<menu>` parent elements

●No element has a `[tabindex]` value greater than 0

●Touch targets have sufficient size and spacing.

●Document has a main landmark.

●Deprecated ARIA roles were not used

○ARIA input fields have accessible names

○ARIA `meter` elements have accessible names

○ARIA `progressbar` elements have accessible names

○`[role]`s are contained by their required parent element

○Elements with the `role=text` attribute do not have focusable descendents.

○ARIA toggle fields have accessible names

○ARIA `tooltip` elements have accessible names

○ARIA `treeitem` elements have accessible names

○The page contains a heading, skip link, or landmark region

○`<dl>`'s contain only properly-ordered `<dt>` and `<dd>` groups, `<script>`, `<template>` or `<div>` elements.

○Definition list items are wrapped in `<dl>` elements

○ARIA IDs are unique

○No form fields have multiple labels

○`<frame>` or `<iframe>` elements have a title

○`<html>` element has an `[xml:lang]` attribute with the same base language as the `[lang]` attribute.

○Input buttons have discernible text.

○`<input type="image">` elements have `[alt]` text

○Links are distinguishable without relying on color.

○The document does not use `<meta http-equiv="refresh">`

○`<object>` elements have alternate text

○Skip links are focusable.

○Cells in a `<table>` element that use the `[headers]` attribute refer to table cells within the same table.

○`<th>` elements and elements with `[role="columnheader"/"rowheader"]` have data cells they describe.

○`[lang]` attributes have a valid value

○`<video>` elements contain a `<track>` element with `[kind="captions"]`

○Tables have different content in the summary attribute and `<caption>`.

○All heading elements contain content.

○Uses ARIA roles only on compatible elements

○Image elements do not have `[alt]` attributes that are redundant text.

○Identical links have the same purpose.

○Tables use `<caption>` instead of cells with the `[colspan]` attribute to indicate a caption.

○`<td>` elements in a large `<table>` have one or more table headers.

All checks on this page are automated. Results are estimates - run targeted manual reviews when the score affects a release decision.