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Accessibility

Accessibility statement for cntw.nhs.uk

This accessibility statement applies to cntw.nhs.uk.

This website is run by Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust. 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:

  • Some documents are in PDF format and are not accessible
  • Some documents have poor colour contrast
  • Some images do not have text alternatives (alt-text)
  • Ambiguous link text is used in some areas of the site
  • Some heading elements are not in sequentially-descending order
  • Some content uses sensory characteristics that relies on visual location of colour
  • Some tables do not have row headings
  • Some of our videos do not include transcripts

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:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in five 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 the Trust’s communications team at [email protected]

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

Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust 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 listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Some documents have poor colour contrast failing WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (contrast minimum).
  • Some images do not have text alternatives (alt-text) failing WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
  • Ambiguous link text is used in some areas of the site failing WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose in context).
  • Some heading elements are not in sequentially-descending order failing WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 (focus order).
  • Some content uses sensory characteristics that relies on visual location of colour failing WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.3 (sensory characteristics).
  • Some tables do not have row headings failing WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.2 (meaningful sequence)
  • Some of our videos do not include transcripts failing WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.3 (audio description or media alternative – prerecorded).
  • Some of our documents do not comply with CCAG 3.1.1 Language of page.
  • Some of our documents do not comply with WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text content.

We aim to fix these issues over the next 12 months and provide assurance that from this point forward, anything we publish on the website will meet the guidance.

The website also contains a range of third party content and functionality. This may direct you to a related service, or partner we work with, where we are not responsible for the accessibility of this content.

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. For example, we do not plan to fix the Annual Report 2014/15.

Videos

We will add captions to all video content on our website, hosted on our YouTube channel.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Our accessibility roadmap shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website.

We have:

  • Undertaken accessibility training
  • Purchased new software to help improve accessibility on the site
  • Reviewed the content and have introduced new templates
  • Met several times with our website providers and informatics team to discuss accessibility.

We are:

  • Actively changing the format of our PDFs into HTML webpages. For example, out of 389 patient information leaflets, all have now been changed to html. Any new patient information leaflets will be added as HTML.
  • Ensuring that when PDF’s are published, such as our Trust Strategy an HTML version is also available.
  • We have appointed a team member to undergo training to ensure all of our Trust newsletters are uploaded to the website as HTML webpages instead of uploading PDFs

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 6th November 2024.

This website was last tested on 4th August 2023. A full website audit was undertaken and carried out by a trusted agency.

Method of testing

The following tools were used in the review, including automated checkers, browsers, browser plugins, readability test tool, colour contrast test tool and screen readers.
Tools used during this review:

• Mac OSX VoiceOver
• WebAIM Color Contrast Checker
• Microsoft Accessibility Insights
• Wave
• Google Lighthouse

Manual testing
• Keyboard testing: navigation and focusable items
• Check for links with ambiguous link text
• Check for alt attributes
• Check form elements: descriptive labels and/or ARIA attributes
• Zoom readability/usability
• Page structure: landmarks and headings

Screen reader testing (i.e. Apple Voiceover)
• Quality and accuracy of link text and image attributes
• Spelling mistakes and reading order
• Interactivity with custom controls
• Accuracy of ARIA properties
• Accessibility of dynamic changes: predictive search, page content that changes on activation, filtered listings

Automated Testing
Automated tools were used to test for accessibility barriers. As tools will find around 40% of issues, manual checks were also performed.

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

We tested: