The Asset Library is the College’s digital asset management tool.

With Imperial's Asset Library students and staff can search over 150,000 photos and other digital assets (such as images, videos, logos and templates) and these are available for the Imperial community to view and download.

The Asset Library is provided by a third-party supplier called Bright Interactive who created the platform - Asset Bank.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use our Asset Library platform and these things are in place to help you:

  • Clear and simple language for users to understand easily
  • Each asset has a description / Alt text
  • Each asset should be identifiable to screen readers
  • Key signifiers for actions are uniform across the various pages and states within the system
  • Consistent functionality
  • Functional on multiple browsers and devices
  • Colour contrast
  • Correct semantic mark-up

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

How accessible the website is

Asset Bank has done a self-evaluation on accessibility. According to this self-evaluation Asset Bank is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA.

Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to the accessibility standard.

This is yet to be confirmed by an independent review of their product.

Asset Bank’s compliance to WCAG 1.0 has been superseded by WCAG 2.1, which Asset Bank has not been independently assessed against. The first steps of any future accessibility work in Asset Bank would be:

  • Assess Asset Bank compliance against WCAG 2.1 
  • Compile a list of the changes necessary for AA compliance.

Note: there are currently no prioritised plans to complete this work.

What we do about known issues

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.

Third party suppliers are responsible for the accessibility of their platforms and we will work with Bright Interactive to influence their digital accessibility roadmap.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Technical information on Asset Bank can be ascertained from Asset Bank’s accessibility statement and from their article on WCAG compliance.

Accessibility of Asset Bank relies on the following technologies to work with the combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plugins installed on your computer:

  • HTML
  • WAI-ARIA
  • CSS
  • JavaScript

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

Due to Asset Bank not having done a rigorous and independent accessibility review or provided a VPAT we deem this website as not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. The non-accessible sections are listed below.

Non accessible content

Content on the platform is uploaded by Imperial editors and therefore the accessibility of the content may vary, but editors are trained in accessible digital content guidance. 

Content that may not be accessible includes:

  • Video captioning or transcription

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

From Asset Bank’s self-evaluation they have listed these aspects that do not meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards:

  • Alternative operational methods (like keyboard commands) for all actions within Asset Bank’s interface, due to the complex nature of some of the actions within the system.
  • User generated content: e.g. videos may not be captioned or have transcribed content because the platform is unable to ensure the accessibility of content uploaded by editors.
  • Colour contrast issues.
  • Due to the editable nature of most text content we cannot ensure that all text is easily understood by users viewing it.

To log in to College's Asset Library users put their credentials into a SAML login page that has known issues. These issues are stated on the main College statement.

Reporting accessibility issues

If accessibility issues are reported by Asset Bank customers, they aim to rectify them as soon as they can if possible. If an issue has been identified, it will enter their established Agile prioritisation and development process.

If you have any accessibility issue with the Imperial Asset Library, please contact accessibility@imperial.ac.uk in the first instance and the team will respond to your email within 72 hours.

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 28 August 2020 when it was first published. It was last updated on 28 August 2020.