Measures to support accessibility

The Health Informatics Service takes the following measures to ensure accessibility of the website:

  • Include accessibility as a requirement for all web content conforming to standard WCAG 2.1 AA and should meet AAA as feasible.
  • Work with the website owner towards clear accessibility goals and responsibilities.
  • Ensure content authors have accessibility knowledge and skills.

Conformance status

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standard defines requirements to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. "Fully conforms" means that the content meets all the WCAG requirements at the specified Level without exceptions

Most website content posted prior to the last review on [Insert date of review] conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. It partially conforms to Level AAA. We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible. We are working on these parts of the site and are committed to producing an accessible site for all users.

Content that is not accessible

  • Most older PDF and Word documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Embedded YouTube videos aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Alternative text is not always applied consistently throughout the site
  • ARIA tags are not used consistently throughout the site
  • The line height or spacing of text cannot be modified by the user
  • Our videos and live video streams do not have captions

Disproportionate burden

This website/ application complies withThe public Sector Bodies (websites and Mobile Applications)(No.2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Details of the information excluded under regulation 4(2) and regulation 7(4) are shown below.

Content of extranets and intranets

The cost of such transformation would be large scale, and highly impactful and as such is except until such websites undergo a substantial revision.

PDF documents since 2018

Some of our content across the site is in PDF format where a durable format is needed. We will be reviewing all PDF documents. However, we have examined documents published after 23 September 2018 and we've assessed the cost of fixing these documents. We believe that doing so would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

Pre-recorded time-based media

Pre-recorded time based media added to the site prior to 23rd September 2020 don’t have captions or audio descriptions. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.3 (Audio Description or Media Alternative (Pre-recorded). We plan to update these in due course.

Live video

Live video streams don’t have captions. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live). We don’t plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Online maps

We will try and ensure online maps are as accessible as possible, but online maps are currently exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What to do if you can’t access parts of this website

This content can be provided in an accessible format on request. We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 10 working days

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We welcome feedback on the accessibility of this website. If you find something that you are unable to access, or we have failed to identify a barrier, please let us know.

If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please use one of the contact methods below:

E-mail: webteam@this.nhs.uk

Phone number: 01484 355420

Address:
Oak House
Woodvale Office Park
Woodvale Road
Brighouse
West Yorkshire
HD6 4AB

We usually respond to accessibility feedback from e-mail within 3-5 working days. Sometimes it can take up to 2 weeks.

If you are not happy that your feedback has been addressed

If you are unhappy with the response you have received from us about your accessibility-related issue, you can make a complaint to the organisation admin team by emailing contact-us@this.nhs.uk

The enforcement procedure set out in Part 5 of these Regulations highlights which recourse may be had in the event of an unsatisfactory response to the notification or the request.

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).

Assessment approach

The Health Informatics Service assessed the accessibility of this website by self-evaluation using a selection of automated tools, as well as manual checks on [insert date].

As our website contains a large volume of pages, we selected a sample of pages to test based on content type. We tested the following pages as they contain our main features used across the site:

  • Insert pages

Tools to aid Accessibility

Compatibility with browsers and assistive technology

The website is designed to be compatible with assistive technologies and the last two versions of browser: Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari and Opera.

In Internet Explorer 10 and in older browsers, some aspects of the website may not display optimally. The website is not designed for Internet Explorer 9 and earlier versions.

Adapting the website to suit your needs

Ability net is a very helpful guide enabling users to make the most of the internet whatever their ability or disability including how to change the fonts and font sizes, changing the colours in your web browser or device, changing the mouse pointer and using the keyboard instead of the mouse.

Getting this website to talk to you.

The BBC provides more information on optimising your browser to talk to you in various different ways and is available via the Screenreaders and Talking Browsers pages.

Translating

Google's free translate service instantly translates words, phrases, and web pages using its language database between English and over 100 different languages. Some references may not always be accurate, such as medical or technical terms, due to the specifics nature of the term.