This accessibility statement applies to Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s website.
We are committed to providing an accessible web presence that gives our patients and other service users access to our services we provide.
We have developed this website to ensure that it is usable by everybody, regardless of age or disability.
Using our website
In order to ensure that all of our visitors can use our website, these pages aim to meet Level-AA standard of WCAG 2.1 (opens in a new tab). This includes elements such as:
- Alternative text for all images and providing non-visual alternatives where appropriate
- All essential audio-visual information is captioned, described as necessary or provided in alternative formats
- Content can be navigated with just a keyboard or speech recognition tools
- The website can be zoomed in to 200% without text spilling off the screen
- The website can be used with a screen reader
- Content is structured, ordered and labelled appropriately
- Change contrast levels
- Modify the font, colours, line height or spacing of text
- The text will reflow in a single column when you change the size of your browser window
We also provide assistive technology, enabling all websites visitors to customise their experience through a range of option to suit their online accessibility and language needs.
The Recite Me toolbar provides text to speech functionality, fully customisable styling features, reading aids and a translation tool with over 100 languages, including 35 text to speech voices and many other features.
This does not fix accessibility issues, but enables us to provide a more inclusive website.
Disclaimer
The translation and text-to-speech features on this website are automated. There may be inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the translations. If in doubt, please refer to the English version of the website. You may also contact us with feedback.
Making changes to your device or system
AbilityNet (opens in a new tab) has advice on making your devices easier to use if you have a disability.
In addition, major operating systems produce the following guidance:
How accessible this website is
Parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:
- some pages and document attachments are not written in plain English
- some documents have poor colour contrast
- some documents are in PDF format and are not accessible
- some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
- Not all videos are captioned, some multimedia content doesn’t yet have audio or text description
We are actively working to address these issues as part of an ongoing programme to improve the accessibility of this website.
Feedback and contact information
What to do if you cannot access parts of this website
Contact us if you have an accessibility query including:
- if you have any problems accessing information or using this website
- if you have any positive feedback about this website's accessibility
- email the CUH accessibility team.
- or call 01223 256 998
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 28 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 us using our online form or email the Webmaster inbox.
Enforcement procedure
If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) (opens in a new tab).
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’).
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
We’re 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. (opens in a new tab)
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
- Some pages have duplicate titles. This may make it difficult for users to orient themselves and find the right content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 (Page Titled).
- Some documents are in less accessible formats, for example PDF. Non-HTML documents published on or after 23 September 2018 must have an accessible format.
- Some of our video content may not be correctly captioned and subtitled. This fails WCAG 2.0 success criterion 1.2.2. Captions (Prerecorded), 1.2.3. Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded), and 1.2.5. Audio Description (Prerecorded)
- The 'Search by keyword' on our patient information A-Z does not change appearance when selected by the keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.0 AA success criterion 2.4.7 Ensure controls change appearance when they are selected.
- The 'search for a specific service' form on our homepage does not provide sufficient contrast against the background. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA 1.4.11 Ensure form controls contrast sufficiently with their surroundings.
- There is an HTML mark-up error: The element “label” appears as a descendant of the “button” element on our third-party Cookie Banner (provided by Cookiebot). We have raised this with Cookiebot developers (full list of issues raised with Cookiebot can be found in the section on this page titled Third party content).
- Some interactive components are not far enough apart. This fails WCAG 2.2 AA 2.5.8 Ensure interactive components are far enough apart
- When increasing the size of the text to 200%. The full text does not fit in some fields on our 'Getting here' widget.
We are actively working to address these issues as part of an ongoing programme to improve the accessibility of this website. Fixes to all known issues will be applied by 31 March 2025.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
Many documents are not accessible in a number of ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure e.g titles and tags.
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.
By March 2024, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.
The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 (opens in a new tab) if they’re not essential to providing our services.
With a few exceptions, all new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. All new documents that aren’t accessible will be clearly identified, and we will provide advice to users to guide them on what to do to receive an accessible version.
Videos and embedded content
WCAG 1.2.2. Captions (Prerecorded) (opens in a new tab), 1.2.3. Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded) (opens in a new tab), and 1.2.5. Audio Description (Prerecorded) (opens in a new tab)
Some of our video content may not be correctly captioned and subtitled. We are reviewing all our video content to address this.
Where videos are old, to not break the YouTube URL or the ID of the video, some videos may have transcripts instead of captions.
Live video
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations (opens in a new tab).
Third party content
We may sometimes have third party content or functionality on our website. Where we are legally required to feature third party content, we cannot reasonably accept responsibility for ensuring it meets accessibility standards. However, for all content we have control over or have otherwise chosen to include, including that which we have paid for, we are obliged to work towards ensuring this content is accessible as possible. We are embedding accessibility into our procurement processes, meaning it is a necessary part of any contract for digital work.
Third party platforms
We use other applications to provide services through our websites, for example:
- Cookiebot (opens in a new tab), cookie compliance software
- Traveline (opens in a new tab), journey planner embedded widget
- Jotform (opens in a new tab), integrated online forms software
- ReciteMe (opens in a new tab), assistive toolbar
Accessibility issues raised with third party platform suppliers
Traveline
November 2023
Issue: Widget scrolls horizontally on small screens (WCAG 2.1 AA 1.4.10)
Response: Mobile version needs to be implemented to fix this issue or Javascript event listener to recognise pixel width on page load. Requires development.
Cookiebot
March 2024
Issue: Accessibility error - HTML Markup error
Response: Awaiting response
December 2023
Issue: Avoid using the same link text for different destinations WCAG 2.0 A 2.4.4
Response: I have collected the input you have provided and has been passed on to the development team. Accessibility issues like this get compiled into more significant updates. Your request helps us determine the priority for said issues. I can not give you a specific time line on the possible update that will address this issue.
Issue: Ensure lists are marked up correctly WCAG 2.0 A 4.1.1
Response: I have escalated the issue to our product team and will get back to you in this ticker as soon as there is an update on it.
July 2023
Issue: Accessibility WCAG 2.0 A 3.2.2 - Add a submit button to all forms
Response: We have a list of WCAG related improvements, so all add your request to that list and hopefully it will be implemented in the future.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We want our website to offer the best experience possible for all our users. In addition to our plan to fix known issues, we continue to work on website content and structure.
We are working with our supplier to fix existing issues and think about future developments.
Existing accessibility issues will be fixed by 31 March 2025.
We are working with Shaw Trust (opens in a new tab). They are performing a manual accessibility audit of our website, to understand any issues that cannot be found using automated testing alone. Any found will be assessed and fixed by 31 March 2025.
More details can be found on the Shaw Trust website. (opens in a new tab)
How we tested this site
We use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 level A and level AA to test how accessible our website is.
We use Silktide (opens in a new tab), an automated tool which scans our entire website to highlight any accessibility issues.
By March 2024 we will have manually tested our website for any accessibility issues that automated testing cannot identify. Any issues found will become part of an on-going development project to improve accessibility of our website.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 12 October 2020. It was last reviewed on 25 April 2024.