Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to www.wyevalley.nhs.uk

This website is run by Wye Valley NHS 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 using browser or device settings
• navigate most of the website using a keyboard or 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 to change text size on this website

In the header at the top of every page is a text size option to increase the size of the text visible on a screen. Select one of the letter As to increase the text size.   

How accessible this website is

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

• many PDF and Word documents (mostly patient leaflets) are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• limited horizontal scrolling and pages do not reflow in mobile view
• not all links have accessible text
• you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
• live video streams do not have captions
• you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader
• map-based resources
• Some of our online forms may be difficult to navigate using just a keyboard, We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigating the forms using a keyboard and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact the Trust communications team in the first instance on 01432 372928 or the patient experience team on 01432 372986 or email patientinformation@wvt.nhs.uk

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

• email WVTcommsteam@wvt.nhs.uk
• call 01432 372928

The Trust communications team in the first instance on 01432 372928 or the patient experience team on 372986 or email patientinformation@wvt.nhs.uk

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

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

Wye Valley NHS 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 and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

We plan to add text alternatives for all images by during 2024. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Some PDF and Word document titles are blank.

Some documents contain the placeholder text “Untitled” or the page filename.

Some documents have duplicate ID.

Some elements don’t contain text.

Some figures and images in PDF documents have blank ALT text.

We do not identify all row and column headers in tables.

Some PDFs do not contain XMP metadata stream.

Some PDFs are not tagged and therefore not accessible by screen readers.

Some pages have the same title.

The metadata stream in the Catalog dictionary does not include the PDF/UA identifier.

Some Word documents contain graphics without Alt Text.

Some Word documents contain a non-inline graphic or object.

Some headings are empty.

Some pages do not have heading elements.

The above issues will be resolved with the introduction of our new website in 2024.

Disproportionate burden

In considering our ambition to make our website fully compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guildens (WCAG) 2.1 we believe carrying out this work now would put a disproportionate burden on the Trust.

We have published our Disproportionate Burden statement which gives the reasons for our decision.

Navigation and accessing information

There’s no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option).

It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.

It’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

These issues will be resolved with the introduction of our new website in 2024.

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 board papers produced prior to September 2018.

We are working towards ensuring that any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are planning to develop and relaunch a new website which will comply with current accessibility requirements.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared in December 2023. It was last reviewed in November 2024.

This website was last tested in December 2023.

The test was carried out by the Trust. The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tools by our website team. A further audit of the website was carried out to the WCAG 2.1 AA standard.