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Accessibility

Accessibility statement for Bedfordshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

This accessibility statement applies to http://bedfordshirehospitals.nhs.uk

This website is run by Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The content on this website is designed for everyone to find, read, and understand. It is compatible with assistive technologies and developed to meet the accessibility standards outlined in this statement. 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.

Bedfordshire Hospitals 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 listed below.

Non-accessible content

Identified issues:

  • Many documents are in less accessible formats, for example PDF. Non-HTML documents published on or after 23 September 2018 must have an accessible format.
  • Many documents are not accessible in several ways including missing text alternatives and document structure. We are looking into making all our documents more accessible and have stopped the upload of all non-compliant documents with the exception of our board papers and information governance disclosure logs, which are required to be on the website.

Non-accessible Content – non compliance with regulations

Some of our PDFs are not accessible due to the following issues:

  • WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast: Elements must have sufficient colour contrast. Poor colour contrast makes it difficult for someone with sight loss to see the content properly. If there is a big difference between the background and foreground colours it should be much easier to see the difference between them.
  • WCAG 2.4.2 Page titled: PDF documents should have titles that describe the topic or purpose of the page. Titles help users understand the topic without having to read the entire document. Without a descriptive title a user may need to spend time searching the document to decide whether the content is relevant. When a PDF is displayed in a browser the title will usually be displayed in the top title bar or as the tab name.
  • WCAG 3.1.1 Language of Page: Assistive technologies are more accurate when a document has a specified language. For example, knowing the language means screen readers can accurately convert text to speech with the correct pronunciation and visual browsers can display the correct characters. This allows users to understand content better.
  • WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships: Tables: Information in tables must be shown in a way that maintains the relationships between the data even when a user cannot see the table. Assistive technologies like screen readers rely on correct markup within a table to understand and show the correct information to a user.  Tables in PDF documents should be tagged to give information such as row and column titles.
  • WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text content: People with sight loss may not see an image clearly on a page. You need to use a text alternative to share the information. The alternative text must describe the information or function represented by the image. Screen readers can share the alternative text with the user. In PDF documents you must ensure that images are tagged correctly with alternative text.

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

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have referral forms published as Word 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.

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.

Third-party content

Our website contains third-party content. We do not have control over and are not responsible for the accessibility of this content. This may include:

  • links to non-BHFT websites
  • content hosted on other websites, such as social media sites.

We use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level A and level AA to test how accessible our website is.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 24 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 2 August 2023.

This website was last tested on 2 August 2023. The test was carried out by Siteimprove.com, an automated tool which scans our entire website to highlight any accessibility issues.

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:

When you contact us, there is a process in place that will acknowledge your query and give you a timescale by which you can expect a reply.

Reporting accessibility problems

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, you can use our complaints process to register your difficulty. This helps us improve our processes.

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).

Continued improvements

We are always looking at ways to improve how we provide information and meet communication needs. If you would like to contact us, provide feedback on Accessible Information or if you encounter any accessibility issues with this website please let us know.

Increasing your text size

If you find it hard to read this you can increase the text size by pressing the Ctrl and + keys together. Stop pressing the buttons when the text is large enough.

To return the text to the default size press Ctrl and 0 keys together.

Keyboard navigation

You can use your arrow keys to scroll up or down the page. You can use your tab key to move between links, and press return or enter to select one. To go back to the previous page, use the backspace key.

Changing the colours

If you use magnification technology you may want to change the site colours, as white can give an uncomfortable glare. To do this, simply change the preferences in your browser:

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer – go to the Tools menu, select Internet Options, select Colours at the bottom of the General tab and make changes to text and background colours in the Colours panel.
  • Mozilla Firefox – go to Tools, select Options, select Colours in the middle of the Content tab and make changes to text and background colours in the Colours panel.

Please note that we cannot guarantee the accessibility of third party websites, documents and multimedia content that we may link to.