Website accessibility statement

This statement applies to: www.midyorks.nhs.uk

This website is run by The Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust.

We are committed to making our website as accessible and usable as possible.

For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts.
• zoom in up to 400% 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 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.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

Making our content accessible: Our website content management system (CMS) includes a built in ‘Accessibility Checker’ – this means that before we place anything on our site, the system checks it and provides the author with messages, prompts and warnings to guide them towards publishing accessible content that is in line with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2. For example – across the majority of the web pages, if we try to publish a photograph without including a description of the image, the website CMS provides an alert, so this can be fixed.

Alternative text: As well as the built in ‘Accessibility Checker’ (as above), we also use WAVE which highlights images where the alt text is too long (more than 125 characters) or not specific enough. This is to benefit a person with complete lack of sight, visually impaired, or who is otherwise unable to view the images on the page. The Reachdeck auditor tool is also used to identify images which are missing alternative text across the website. As part of our monthly accessibility review, these tools are utilised to correct content based on the results. 

Alternative display options: We have several alternative display options which helps users view this website in a style that is easy to read. More information can be found at www.midyorks.nhs.uk/accessibility-options. We have a Reachdeck toolbar installed on our website which enables users to utilise a range of accessibility tools. This includes tools to alter the screen to allow users who require additional support to access content visually. This is to aid individuals with visual impairments, neurodiversity, and dyslexia. The toolbar also allows for the visual display to be tailored, based on an individual’s needs and/or preferences. 

Translation: On our website, the Reachdeck supportive toolbar (previously known as BrowseAloud™) enables content to be read in a number of different languages (a feature which is powered by Google Translate). This is useful for non-English speakers to provide the content in a language familiar to them. Please note, Google Translate may not always translate accurately, and the following issues still require rectification:

• word order
• gender (where it is not explicit)
• tone (e.g., formal vs informal pronouns)
• confusion with word type
• language variants
• instances where elements do not follow the grammatical rules.

Google is continually developing its machine translation tool.

Audio: On our website, the Reachdeck toolbar enables text to be read out loud, which includes the option to download an MP3 recording of the content. This feature is also available in a range of different languages (powered by Google Translate). Although anyone can make use of this, it is particularly beneficial for users with dyslexia, low literacy, and those with visual impairments.

Keyboard: 2.1.1 Keyboard (level A) Although you can navigate most of the website using just a keyboard, users will have to tab through all menu options in the menu and cannot close the menus and skip to the one they may want. This issue has been raised with our web developers to fix.

Accessibility auditor tools

To make sure our content is as accessible as possible; we have several measures in place to keep track of necessary content and developer updates. 

Texthelp (Reachdeck): The Reachdeck auditor tool is set up on our website. Reports are scheduled monthly to proactively monitor website accessibility, generate reports, and make fixes. This provides an extra level of quality assurance and picks up a range of issues including broken links and alt text.

WAVE: This tool is used as part of our monthly website accessibility monitoring / alongside the expertise of our website developer (VerseOne) to identify issues with alt text, missing links, colour contrast and navigation.

PDFs: Patient information PDFs have been made accessible using Adobe software to ensure they can be read by a screen reader and the accessible tools within our Reachdeck toolbar. Where possible, PDFs have also been converted to a HTML format which is compatible with our screenreader tool. 

Videos: the videos embedded on our website include subtitles/captions and are therefore accessible with A 1.2.1 Captions.

Zoom: WCAG 1.4.4 Resize Text website content can be zoomed at 400% without the text spilling off the screen which helps people with low vision by letting them increase text size in content so that they can read it.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content - non-compliance with regulations

The content listed below is not compliant with the accessibility regulations, and therefore are not fully accessible:

• Labels or Instructions:  WCAG 3.3.2: Labels or Instruction: There will be a few links to other pages and documents which may not work and are no longer active, e.g. errors such as: link not working, and page not found. To eliminate these errors, these are picked up by the monthly Reachdeck accessibility audit.
   
• Visual presentation of text and images: although care has been taken to use compliant colour contrast ratios which feature text, we are still developing our site as a whole to ensure a contrast ratio of at least WCAG 4.5:1. We are aware that auditor tools may identify some imagery on our website as non-compliant, however this isn’t a true representation as it is picking up contrast on areas of the image that may include colour gradient but that doesn’t include text so there is no contrast issue.
   
• Alt text: 1.1.1 Non-text Content: Although there are measures in place to identify and correct alt text, there may be some instances where this is missing or insufficient. We are aware some images may not have correct alt text, or that the alt text doesn’t appear on news/blogs landing pages. We are working on rectifying this. Any issues will be picked up as part of our monthly accessibility website review and fixed.
   
• PDF documents: There are some PDF documents which are not fully accessible, which includes:
  • the structure of the content is not always available to assistive technology, which makes the content difficult to understand and navigate for users of screen readers (Info and relationships 1.3.1)
    
    
  • the reading order of the content is not always logical, which means some content does not make sense when read out by text-to-speech software (Meaningful sequence 1.3.2)
    
    
  • images do not always have text alternatives, which means some content is not available when using text-to-speech software (Text alternatives 1.1.1).

• ARIA Tab index: Some functionality of the content is not operable through keyboard control. 2.1.1 Keyboard (level A) in some instances the tab index can’t facilitate keyboard navigation for interactive elements. We are working with our website developers (VerseOne) to fix these issues. We will provide a timescale for these fixes as soon as possible.
   
• Forms: On our website, there are some forms provided by third parties, e.g. the ‘Friends and Family Test’ which is provided by IQVIA. The forms may look like they are part of our website but are provided by a third party and are out of our control. If any accessibility issues are picked up, we do raise this with the third-party provider where possible.

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

This section covers issues that we do not need to fix right now. The law calls these exemptions.

Videos: Pre-recorded audio and video published before 23 September 2020.

PDFs and other 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.

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, please contact:

• email: midyorks.communications@nhs.net
• call: 01924 543637

We’ll review your request and aim to get back to you in 7 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, please email our communications team.

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Mid Yorkshire Teaching 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.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 26 March 2025.

How we tested this website

This website was launched to the public on 8 September 2021. The website has undergone a new installation in order to better comply with the accessibility regulations. Changes have been identified and corrected following an accessibility audit of the website which was conducted by VerseOne Technologies Ltd in September 2020. Further changes have been made following audits via Reachdeck and Silktide. Both tools are used monthly to audit the website and were last used on Monday 24 March 2025.

To monitor the accessibility of public sector websites, our website was selected following a random sample and an accessibility review conducted by the Cabinet Office in May 2023. A copy of the initial report can be found here, and a list of the actions taken to fix the issues for the areas identified are listed at the bottom of this page. The issues were corrected and applied site-wide where possible and updated in the statement above. We also completed our own audit using the Reachdeck auditor tool and WAVE, manual testing on a selection of pages on desktop and mobile.  

We have updated this accessibility statement to cover the issues found in the Cabinet Office report, including ones related to our accessibility statement, and any other accessibility issues found during our own site audits. We aim to review our accessibility statement every six months or when an update is required.

We are committed to maximising the accessibility for our users and will continue to develop our website and utilise appropriate tools to further improve accessibility.