Accessibility statement

Accessibility statement for NHFT.NHS.UK

This accessibility statement applies to the Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust website (www.nhft.nhs.uk).

This website is run by Northamptonshire Healthcare. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

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

 

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • videos use YouTube’s automatic captions and transcript, this may lead to minor errors
  • The CQC information on the homepage is provided by a third party. Alternative text on the See the report linked button is not fully descriptive when heard out of context by blind screen reader users.

 

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille please contact our Patient Liaison Service (PALs):

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 7 days.

 

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact our communications team:

 

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).

 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

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

 

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

 

Non-accessible content

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

During September 2020 we reviewed 319 documents published on this site after September 2018, using Adobe Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker. The documents were then updated and republished. Due to a disproportionate burden certain documents have not be included in this review including board papers, Freedom of Information (FOI) responses and policies.

Any PDFs containing service information are checked at a minimum every two years and are automatically unpublished if they are not reviewed. Any new PDF or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

 

 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

In June 2020 Northamptonshire Healthcare commissioned an independent audit of the accessibility of this site. The auditor raised 5 main issues (3 Advisory) related to content of the site and 13 issues related to the design of the site, in which the website infringed the current WCAG 2.1 guidance. Updates were made to this site to remedy these issues. The following steps were also taken between July-September 2020:

  • 272 pages on this site were reviewed to:
    • ensure all text scores below 12 on the Gunning Fog Index
    • remove meaningless text links
    • update acronyms and abbreviations so that they appear in full when they first
  • 319 documents published on this site after September 2018 reviewed for accessibility using Adobe Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker
  • Images reviewed to ensure appropriate alternative text

Any new content we publish will meet accessibility standards.

 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 22 September 2020.

This website was last tested between 9-10 June 2020. The test was carried out by Penny Everett, website accessibility consultant, arranged by VerseOne Technologies Ltd.

The auditor selected random pages on the site to test. All pages were then reviewed following the audit by members of the NHFT communications team.

You can read the full accessibility test reports:

Northamptonshire Healthcare - ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT (DESIGN)2020[pdf] 797KB Northamptonshire Healthcare - Website Accessibility Content Report(2020)[pdf] 4MB