Accessibility statement accordion

Velindre University 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

Version 2, published 21/05/2024

Whilst we endeavour to meet ‘WCAG 2.1 AA’ we currently have the following non-compliance issues:

• Some menus and parts of some pages are marked up in a way that may make them confusing when accessed using Assistive Technologies.  This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value Level A
• Headings on some pages are not in a logical nested order. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships Level A
• Some elements have an illogical focus order.  This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order Level A

Disproportionate burden

Whilst we will prioritise patient information to ensure it is digitally accessible wherever possible, we know there are some sections of our website of a corporate nature, which are not currently accessible and have been produced since September 2018. 

For these sections, we will identify where we know documents are non-compliant and provide contact details wherever possible.  As documentation is renewed in the future, we will ensure digital accessibility is considered.

Currently, these sections are listed as below: (and subject to change):

• Board or committee papers
• Performance reports which may contain complex reporting/statistical data
• Policies and procedures produced since September 2018
• Publications linked from our Freedom of Information pages – including disclosure logs

You can read the Disproportionate Burden Assessment on our website here.

Navigation and accessing information

• It’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.
• Some devices such as tablets may not perform fully as expected.

PDFs and other documents

Our website contains information based on two distinct audiences:

1. General service information for our patients and the general public;
2. Corporate/technical information which is available as a public document in the interests of openness and transparency. However, these documents have not been written with the general public in mind.

Where information is aimed at service users and the wider public, for example patient leaflets and consultation materials, these have been converted into HTML webpages. We may occasionally provide these as PDFs or other formats (such as Microsoft Word) but for download purposes only.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services. We do not plan to fix any PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018, for example Board and Committee Papers, Health Board policies and procedure documentation or statutory documentation such as Annual Reports. However, we will endeavour to make any new PDFs or Word documents accessible wherever possible.

We occassionally publish PDFs which contain ‘transcripts/scanned manuscripts or handwritten notes’ for example in FOI requests. These are outside of scope and will not be fixed.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live audio or video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. However, we will always aim to provide subtitled versions of pre-recorded videos produced.

We strive to make new content as accessible as possible.

As an organisation, we:

• work with colleagues to improve awareness and understanding of digital accessibility;
• encourage the use of plain language and inclusive writing; 
• encourage the use of accessible HTML content wherever possible; 
• assist staff in the creation of accessible videos, including subtitles, transcripts with audio descriptions;
• work with the website developers to identify issues when they arise to seek a fix or an accessible alternative solution
• carry out ‘spot checks’ on published pages and documents to ensure they are as digitally accessible as possible.