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Website accessibility statement

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Accessibility statement for University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust

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

This website is run by University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT). 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 not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • some images do not use text alternatives
  • some hyperlinks are not contextual
  • a number of our online forms use date pickers in them which do not interact well with screen readers

Feedback and contact information

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

  • Telephone: 01539 715577 (answer machine service is available)
  • Email: pals@mbht.nhs.uk

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 10 working 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 Corporate Communications team at communications.team@mbht.nhs.uk.

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).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

Our sites have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us using the information on our ‘Get in touch’ webpage.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

UHMBT 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

Issues with PDFs and other documents

PDFs are not able to comply with the requirements of the web accessibility standard, so wherever possible we try to not upload new PDFs. There are some exceptions:

  • we add some PDFs as downloads of reports, publications or policies
  • our annual reports, which must, by law, be laid before parliament in a printed version, and then appear unaltered
  • any notices which must, by law, include a signature in order to be valid
  • downloads intended for print purposes, such as posters and newsletters

We also have a number of documents in other formats including Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint which are not accessible or may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2. We aim to reformat documents to new accessible formats upon request within 10 working days. Please contact communications.team@mbht.nhs.uk for support.

Issues with links

Some link text is not contextual and doesn't make sense when read on its own (for example 'click here'). This doesn’t meet the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.9 (link purpose). The UHMBT Communications team are working through the links which don't make sense on their own, and we aim to have fixed these by December 2023.

Issues with images

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We plan to add text alternatives for all images by December 2023. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

None

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

Live video

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

Pre-recorded video

We do not plan to add captions to pre-recorded time-based videos published before 23rd September 2020 as this is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

PDFs and other documents

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

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 11 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 9 June 2023.

This website was last tested on 31 March 2020. The test was carried out by Frank Design Ltd.

In regards to testing, Frank has a 96 point checklist which is used to review the website against all WCAG 2.1 A and AA accessibility standards.

This includes:

  • Keyboard navigation
  • Screen reader using JAWS
  • Screen reader using NVDA
  • Validation for HTML (this ensures that the code has been validated against the HTML specification and there are no errors so that assistive technologies can correctly handle the code) This is also done for Wave and Google Lighthouse.