Accessibility

This accessibility statement applies to the following websites belonging to University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust:

www.uhb.nhs.uk
education.uhb.nhs.uk (with or without the "www." prefix)
research.uhb.nhs.uk (with or without the "www." prefix)
jobs.uhb.nhs.uk (with or without the "www." prefix)

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, if your chosen web browser supports this
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 screen reader software

We also aim to make the website text as simple as possible to understand. (Though, in some places, text may have been written by people who are not experts in writing for the web.)

The AbilityNet website has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

AbilityNet website

Feedback and contact information

If you would like to request any of the information on this website in an alternative format, please let us know by contacting the Web Team.

Please use the following contact details for website accessibility queries only. For other contact details, please see our contact pages or the relevant section of the website.

Reporting accessibility problems

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, please contact the Web Team.

Please use the following contact details for website accessibility queries only. For other contact details, please see our contact pages or the relevant section of the website.

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 a complaint about our website's accessibility, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Equality Advisory and Support Service

Technical information about this website's accessibility

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the Regulations).

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

PDF documents and other downloadable files

Downloadable documents, including but not limited to PDF documents and Word files, are sometimes published on our websites for one or all of the following reasons or purposes:

To meet governance requirements or legislation for official or internal use, often when printed. This may include controlled documents and other corporate documents, for example
Specifically to be printed, rather than for use on the web, but published online as helpful content or to meet certain regulatory requirements. This may include newsletters and annual reports, for example
For use by a specific audience where web accessibility is not a requirement due to the intended use of the file. This may include referral forms for GP practices to print themselves, for example
For use in the management of patients or provision of services, where the author may not have the technical or design skills required to make the document accessible but the information of resources may be urgently required, for example during the COVID-19 pandemic

The documents many be non-accessible in any or all of the following ways:

Downloadable documents are not adaptable by the user to suit their needs. This fails WCAG 2.1 guideline 1.3 (adaptable)
The formatting of these documents may make them difficult to use for users of assistive technology such as screen reader software, and for people using their keyboard to navigate the website. This fails WCAG 2.1 guideline 2.4 (navigable)
Where documents have been designed specifically for print, the colours used do not always meet colour contrast requirements for web accessibility. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (contrast (minimum))
These documents may sometimes include scanned images of text, which may be inaccessible to assistive technologies, such as screen reader software. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.5 (images of text)
A default language may not be set in the document properties. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.1 (language of page)
To view these documents when zoomed to 400% or larger, users will often need to scroll both horizontally and vertically to view all content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.10 (reflow)

Where downloadable documents are made available in these formats and are not compliant, it is usually out of necessity, for the reasons stated. We will review further PDF documents before publication to this website and will publish content in accessible formats where possible. We plan to reduce the amount of PDF documents as far as possible, and to make all remaining PDF documents accessible by 31 March 2024.

Embedded video

Embedded videos do not yet all have text alternatives, audio descriptions or captions as required to be accessible to all users. This fails WCAG 2.1 guideline 1.2 (time-based media). We plan to add the required alternatives for time-based media by 31 December 2023.

Forms

Where an input error is automatically detected in an online form, the error may not be described to the user in text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.1 (error identification)
If an input error is automatically detected suggestions for correction may not be presented to the user in text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.3 (error suggestion)

We plan to add indications and suggestions in text for all form errors by 31 March 2024.

Google reCAPTCHA

For security purposes, our online forms use Google reCAPTCHA v2, which is a version of a "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart" (CAPTCHA).

CAPTCHAs are an important security tool used to prevent automated submission of form data by malicious software (know as bots or spiders). According to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the organisation which develops international standards for the web, reCAPTCHA v2 may not be accessible to users of all technologies in all instances. For example:

"it has been widely observed that utilizing keyboard navigation, as many assistive technology users do, no longer works. Instead, users are presented with a traditional inaccessible CAPTCHA as a fall-back mechanism." This would fail:
- WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content)
- WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 (keyboard)
"audio CAPTCHAs previously available with v2 implementations are now sometimes no longer being provided. Instead users see a message that reads: 'Your computer or network may be sending automated queries. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.'" This would fail WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content)

However, testing indicates that these technologies do often work with reCAPTCHA v2.

For full details of accessibility of CAPTCHAs, please see the W3C article "Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA". Section 3.2 covers Google reCAPTCHA.

We will review the guidance on reCAPTCHA at least once a year, and implement any changes required to make the implementation of CAPTCHAs on our website more accessible.

Micro-sites

The following sub-sites were built before the Regulations came into effect and have yet to be checked in full for accessibility issues and made full compliant.

www.uhb.nhs.uk/hr
www.uhb.nhs.uk/htc

These sites may fail several WCAG 2.1 success criteria. We plan to review these sites and provide accessible alternatives, usually by incorporating the content into this website, by 31 December 2023.

Legacy websites

Prior to the merger of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT) in 2018, many HEFT services had their own websites built, and continue to maintain these sites.

While these websites may still be in operation for continuity purposes, it has not been possible to provide central control or complete accessibility testing of the sites.

These sites will almost certainly fail several WCAG 2.1 success criteria. We plan to review these sites and provide accessible alternatives, usually by incorporating the content into this website, by 31 December 2023.

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

Older video content

While we aim to make all of our content compliant where possible, we may not add captions to all pre-recorded video published before 23 September 2020, as this is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Maps

Online maps - those embedded from digital mapping services such as Google Maps, and maps made available in formats such as PDF - are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. However, we will always attempt to provide as much related information as possible in text, e.g. postcodes and directions.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) ratings widget

As an NHS provider we are legally required to display our CQC rating on our website. This is done via a widget provided by the CQC, and we do not have any control over the appearance or functionality of this widget. This widget is exempt, as set out in The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018, PART 1, point 4 (2) (e), which states an an exemption: "third-party content that is neither funded nor developed by, nor under the control of, the public sector body".

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 30 April 2021. It was last reviewed on 13 July 2023.

This website was last tested on 30 April 2021. The test was carried out by the Web Team at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. New content is checked against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 as it is published.

We tested or assessed each piece of content as the website was built, using the following as reference:

We also used the following tools to test the website:

Last reviewed: 18 July 2023