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:

  • email: commsteam@nhft.nhs.uk
  • call: 0800 917 8504 (this is the number for the PALs team who will be able to log your concerns)

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 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

 

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with 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.

PDF or Word documents, which are essential to providing our services e.g. patient information, published after this date are scanned for accessibility before being uploaded. Any PDFs containing service information are checked at a minimum every two years and are automatically unpublished if they are not reviewed. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

There are some historical FOI, board papers, governor papers as well as more recent board papers which do not fully pass accessibility checks. These are for reasons including WCAG criteria lack of text alternative (1.1.1), use of colour (1.4.1), text contrast (1.4.3), keyboard accessibility (2.1.1), and section headings (2.4.10). A large number of historical PDFs, including board papers, FOI responses and governor papers, were removed from the site in the financial year 2025-2026. We are committed to ensuring all new PDFs uploaded meet accessibility requirements. 

If you need any documents 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.

Third-party content

The CQC information on our home page 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 users of screen readers. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

Due to third-party code embeds (such as social media embeds or Trac integration) some pages do not support reflow, so people with low vision cannot enlarge text on all web pages and read it in a single column without scrolling in more than one direction. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.4.10 (reflow). 

 

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

PDFs and other 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.

Any new PDFs 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

In August 2024, the Government Digital Service completed an accessibility audit of this site and highlighted a number of accessibility issues which required correction. These were corrected by the end of December 2024. 

This website is audited for accessibility regularly by VerseOne Digital, as part of an ongoing contracted arrangement. The latest audit was conducted in January 2026:  Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust - Accessibility Audit January 2026.pdf [pdf] 693KB.

Issues identified in this regular report have been resolved by VerseOne as the website supplier and the NHFT communications team for content-related issues. 

Any new content we publish will meet accessibility standards.

The AccessAngel toolbar is provided on the site as an optional tool to support users in adapting the interface (for example, change the text size or colour) or to have the text read out to them. The site has been designed and built to work with different browser settings or assistive technology; the use of AccessAngel is optional and not essential to adapt the display of the website. 

 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was originally prepared on 22 September 2020. It was last reviewed and updated on 18 March 2026.