Accessibility improvements

Replaced a third-party JavaScript carousel plugin with a more accessible alternative:

• Many pages contained various carousels or other sliding content which utilised a third-party JavaScript plugin called Slick Slider. This open-source code had various accessibility problems and was no longer being supported by the original creator. This JavaScript code has now been replaced by a more accessible version and the associated HTML and CSS across the website has been modified to work with the new plugin.
• This fixed a number of accessibility issues across the website including; incorrect use of a 'listbox' role, some elements with an ARIA role were not contained by a parent role, some ARIA attributes did not conform to valid values, some interactive controls were nested.

Made a number of other general improvements:

• Fixed a number of content elements that had poor colour contrast, for example, changed offending background colour, text colour or link colour so that required contrast is now met.
• Fixed an issue with some of our Content Management System templates that prevented image descriptions (alt tags) being published to a number of pages successfully.
• Fixed invalid HTML on various pages.
• Fixed pages that contained various landmark issues.
• Fixed some iframes that did not have a title.
• Fixed some empty heading tags.
• Fixed some empty link tags.

Fixed an error that was occurring with the keyboard tab order:

• On all pages, the keyboard focus was lost for 3 tabs after tabbing from the search box at the top of the page. The keyboard tabbed into the search options without being opened. Additionally, once the search box was open, the order the keyboard tabbed onto the magnifying glass was not clear. The magnifying glass is next to 'GO' but the keyboard did not follow that page sequence. 
  
  

Significant improvements to navigating the site using just a keyboard:

• Added a 'skip to content' link (visible when tabbing with keyboard) on all pages that allows the user to jump down to the content section of the page. (This was not present before.)
• Added functionality to open the submenu of the main navigation by tabbing to the arrow and pressing return. (It was not previously possible to open the sub menus in main navigation, you could not tab to focus on the arrow buttons.)
• Added functionality to open and close the key facts panel on courses pages when using the keyboard only. (It was not previously possible to open the key facts tab using the keyboard.)
• Modified all slideshow content types so that you can navigate to them and scroll them by the arrow icons and the indicator dots using the keyboard. (The arrows to change slideshow articles and the indicator dots below the slides were not previously accessible when using the keyboard.)
• Modified all the accordions across the website so that they can be opened and closed using the keyboard - tab to them then press return to open. (You could previously only open the accordions using a mouse and not using a keyboard.)
• Modified the main navigation so that you no longer tab through the list of links if using the keyboard when the menu is not open. (Previously, when tabbing you could tab through all menu items without visible focus when the menu was closed.)
• Modified the top search box to show the focus on the 'Go/Search' icon when you tab to it using the keyboard so that users know they are on the search box. (You could tab onto the go icon but it didn't show that you were on it.)
• All links have been set to have an underline on active & focus so that when tabbing through links you can see where you are on the page. (Previously the tab focus was not always obvious.)
• A Play/Pause button has been added to the top left of the homepage video to allow it to be stopped. (It is a requirement that auto playing videos can be stopped by the user using the keyboard or the mouse. This was not previously possible.)

Addressed some of the main colour contrast issues:

• A grey semi-transparent background has been added to all white masthead text that has an image behind it. This should now be much easier for the user to read especially when some of the images contained light colours.
• The grey slideshow boxes contained colour contrast issues. The grey background has been made lighter, the text colour is also darker so that we meet the required accessible colour contrast ratios.
• The blue link colour has been changed slightly so that we meet the required accessible colour contrast ratios.
• The grey background of the main menu has been lightened slightly so that we meet the required accessible colour contrast ratios.
• The grey background of the key facts panel on courses has been lightened slightly so that we meet the required accessible colour contrast ratios.
• The blue accordion style has been changed to dark grey with white text so that we meet the required accessible colour contrast ratios.
• The blue mastheads have changed slightly so that we meet the required accessible colour contrast ratios.

There were also some other changes to some code to help screen reading software better understand the page.