Website Accessibility Statement
We want to be outstanding for the patients we help and the people we employ.
We’re committed to a culture and practices of accessibility and making sure all digital material we publish on our platforms is accessible.
We understand that accessibility is an ongoing commitment and are undertaking a project to redevelop our full suite of websites to correct the areas which are not fully compliant (Exceptions and Limitations) to the WCAG2.2 AA and AAA standard.
Our new websites are being developed in collaboration with our staff and patients, prioritising the unique accessibility requirements of our key website users.
We expect to launch our new suite of websites by December 2025.
Websites
This policy covers the content, design, and navigation elements of our three main Berkshire Healthcare website domains:
- Berkshire Healthcare (berkshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/)
- Children, Young People, and Families (CYPF) (berkshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/)
- Talking Therapies (berkshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/)
Social media
As we rely on our social media platforms to share service and campaign information, we’re committed to applying accessibility guidelines to all content we publish on our social media accounts:
We have detailed our level of compliance for our Content, Design, Navigation for our websites.
We have detailed our level of compliance for our Content, for our social media accounts.
Content (websites and social media)
In our policy, ‘Content’ covers:
- Text: The typed words and phrases used to describe our services, contact details, advice pages, news items, and reports
- Images: Photography, graphics, diagrams, and logos
- Video: Recordings of advice and treatment videos, and animations/animated graphics (i.e., gifs)
- Document assets: Including PDFs (reports, referral forms) and Word document types
- Data forms: Data capture forms that allow patients to contact us or register for services
- Social media: Content we post on our channels, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Design (websites)
In our policy, ‘Design’ covers:
- Appearance: Stylistically, all three of our websites follow very familiar and consistent layouts, structure, and imagery, whilst retaining their own unique colour scheme.
- Templates: For consistency in brand and accessibility, we have dedicated templates for each of the three websites, and the type of information we publish on each. Broadly, this includes:
- Home pages
- News and therapy advice items
- Our services / therapies
- Contact us pages
- General information pages
- Alert and notification boxes
- Responsiveness: Our webpage templates are responsive to zoom changes up to 300%+
- Mobile: All our websites are viewable on smaller mobile and tablet devices, and the page content adjusts to suit the device screen.
Navigation (websites)
In our policy, ‘Navigation’ covers:
- Menu structure
- Access: Can the user access content using different input devices easily
WCAG 2.2 standards
We have assessed our websites and digital content against the WCAG 2.2 standard.
We will aim to assess our compliance against WCAG 2.2 once our new suite of websites have launched.
Content (websites and social media) compliance
Pre-rebrand (2018/19)
Content that was created before our recent rebrand (2018/19) has been checked and broadly meets the WCAG 2.2 AA (Double A) standard, and the AAA standard in some cases.
For all other content which doesn’t meet this standard, we have a content review plan in place throughout 2024 - 2025.
We are taking one of two actions for remaining content:
- Removing it completely (unless we are duty bound to still present it, such as clinical safety reports), OR
- Updating it with a newer version, when this is ready for publishing - for example, a new strategy document which supersedes the older one
There are some we’re working to improve. These are covered in Exceptions and Limitations.
Post-rebrand (2019/2021)
All content which has been created after our rebrand meets WCAG 2.1 AA (Double A) standard, and the AAA standard in some cases.
Social media
All content which has been created after our rebrand largely meets WCAG 2.1 AA (Double A) standard.
There are some we’re working to improve. These are covered in Exceptions and Limitations.
Design compliance
While the designs for all three of our websites broadly meet the WCAG 2.1 AA standard, there are areas we’re working to improve. These are covered in Exceptions and Limitations.
Navigation compliance
While the navigation elements for all three of our websites broadly meet the WCAG 2.1 AA standard, there are areas we’re working to improve.
These are covered in Exceptions and Limitations.
Exceptions and limitations
There are areas of our website and content were we do not fully meet the AA/AAA criteria.
We have included details about how we plan to address these issues.
| Limitation | Criterion | Planned update |
|---|---|---|
| Video subtitles and/or captions |
1.2.5 1.2.8 |
Some older videos and clips do not have subtitles, or provide alternative content methods (e.g. a PDF transcript). We’re aiming to update these videos, or replace them with newer versions. For social media, we’re reviewing our procedure for posting shorter clips to make sure they have readable text subtitles, which matches the call to action in the text post. |
| Alternative text for images and icons | 1.4.5 | We are putting new processes in place to make sure all images posted on both our websites and social media include alternative text, to describe the contents clearly. |
| Data tables | 1.3.2 |
Some of our data tables in page content (opening and contact times) are displayed horizontally. We’re replacing these with vertical tables, with correct labelling. |
| Exception | Criterion | Planned update |
|---|---|---|
| Embedded videos |
An issue that has been caused by our cookie policy is that some embedded videos from YouTube and Vimeo may not appear if the user decides to decline our cookie policy. To remedy this, we now include a hyperlink to our channels under each video, so the user can now watch the video on the page, or watch it directly on the channel if the video does not appear. |
| Limitation | Criterion | Planned update |
|---|---|---|
| Colour contrast on action buttons (contact us, social media) and banners | 1.4.3 |
All buttons and menu items have alt text descriptions, including logos of charities, partners, and accreditations. We’re updating the colour contrast and icon designs to improve access for example, our Make a referral and Need help now? buttons both contain exclamation mark icons (‘!’). |
| Referral forms |
3.3.2 4.1.3 |
All new online referral forms are created using approved methods and tools. Older versions (emails and PDFs) are gradually being replaced with newer versions. Many services are now moving away from document forms, in favour of online digital forms (e.g. Microsoft Forms). For online forms we have created, we’re reviewing the wording used in questions and instructions. |
| Limitation | Criterion | Planned update |
|---|---|---|
|
Tabbing (Priority order and navigation) |
2.1.1 2.1.3 |
We’re adjusting the tab order for our pages, to give priority to ‘contact us’ and ‘need help now’ pages. We’re ensuring all websites accept navigation using the W3C standard keyword access (e.g., tabbing, arrow keys to move between menus). |
| Visual focus | 2.4.7 | We’re planning to add visual focus, so users can clearly identify which element is active when using tabbing or assistive technology to navigate. |
| ARIA Elements | 3.2.4 | We’re working with our website team to make sure all ARIA elements are clearly labelled to help users with assistive technologies. |
| Pop-ups | 1.4.13 |
Some pop-up notifications we have used on older content isn’t fully accessible by keyboard. We’re updating these pages to find a more accessible way users can interact with the content |
| Search bar |
3.3.3 4.1.3 |
We’re making sure all search bars (bars, icons, text fields) on the websites, including the results pages, are accessible by keyboard. This includes fixing the ‘null error’ when searching, by ensuring the search action only provides results when the user provides content into the search field |
| Carousels | 4.1.2 |
We use some carousels to help display our content including news items, research studies, volunteer opportunities. Content and images are clearly labelled, but we’re improving the navigation buttons and ARIA elements to make it easier for users to move between items. |
| Contact us forms |
3.3.2 4.1.3 |
We are making changes to the data fields on the contact us forms to make it easier for keyboard users to enter content and move between fields. |
Based on the accessibility requirements stated on the GOV.UK website, although we are not required to amend all ‘old’ content, we are taking steps to make sure we support all users for accessibility.
|
Things you might not need to fix – according to the GOV.UK website Your team does not need to fix this content because they’re exempt from accessibility regulations: |
Actions we have taken |
|---|---|
| Pre-recorded audio and video published before 23 September 2020 |
Where possible, we’re making sure all our hosted videos either have at least one of the following:
|
| Live audio and video |
We make sure that a full recording of the session, complete with subtitles and/or transcript – or host on a platform which provides generated subtitles - will be provided after the event. Depending on the type of event or service, the presenter may also enable ‘Live captions’ on the tools we use, such as Microsoft Teams. |
| Heritage collections like scanned manuscripts |
We very rarely publish full scanned images‑as‑documents to our websites, and instead opt for:
|
| Heritage collections like scanned manuscripts |
We very rarely publish full scanned images‑as‑documents to our websites, and instead opt for:
|
| PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 - unless users need them to use a service, for example a form that lets you request school meal preferences |
We regularly review all published documents, and either:
|
| Maps |
We do not provide ‘live’ directions to our services based on a user’s location data (cookies). Instead, we provide directions to our services in two ways
|
| Third party content that’s under someone else’s control if you did not pay for it or develop it yourself - for example, social media ‘like’ buttons |
We have very minimal unpaid third-party content on our websites:
|
| Content on intranets or extranets published before 23 September 2019 (unless you make a major revision after that date) | We have a new staff intranet system. The design and most of the content has been created from the start of the project, following our new brand and accessibility guidelines. |
| Archived websites if they’re not needed for services your organisation provides and they are not updated | We have archived older website designs as part of our rebrand. |
How we check our compliance
We use a combination of suggested methods by W3C, GOV.UK, and eDX community to guide our policy.
Manual criteria check
With each new policy update, we do a full manual check of our websites against the AA and AAA criteria, and then schedule any necessary updates. This is often done by several members of the team, for validity.
Community Engagement
We may seek guidance from our own patient services, including Learning Disabilities, and Talking Therapies for an end user perspective on specific content and web products. This often involves direct patient feedback sessions or asking them to review sections in their own time and come back to us with ideas of how we may improve.
Browser tools
We use a combination of browser extensions to review and test our content accessibility. We continually work with independent agencies and communities for their advice on the latest tools and extensions that can help with our assessment.
| Tool | Website | Type | How it helps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colour Contrast Checker | colourcontrast.cc/ | Colour and Contrast | Checks whether page and asset colours pass WCAG 2.1 AA and AAA criteria |
| Snook | snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html#fg | Colour and Contrast | Checks whether page and asset colours pass WCAG 2.1 AA and AAA criteria |
| Silktide toolbar | silktide.com/resources/toolbar/ | User ability and challenges | Real-time view of how users with different abilities and challenges (e.g., dyslexia, colour blindness, tunnel vision, blindness) may interact with our content |
| WAVE | webaim.org/ | WCAG 2.1 criteria | Evaluates a page, and provides a breakdown of potential Errors, Contrast Errors, Alerts, ARIA, and Structural Elements |
| WCAG Accessibility Audit tool | w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/ | WCAG 2.1 criteria | A quick summary of whether a page is likely to ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ (intended as a guide only) WCAG 2.1 AA and AAA success criteria |
| Web Developer | chrispederick.com/work/web-developer/ |
WCAG2.1 criteria Design Navigation Assistive Technologies |
|
Milestones
Here are the timescales for our reviews and updates. Time periods are intended as a guide.
| Full policy review | |
|---|---|
| WCAG2.1 and 2.2 compliance |
This policy review was carried out and published in December 2024
|
Content and technology checks
| What we check | Time period | How we check |
|---|---|---|
| Sitewide spot-checks | Weekly | We constantly review and update our web content, based on user feedback, public urgency, or randomly selected pages. |
|
Full service webpage checks (Approx. 150 total) |
Every 3 to 5 months | Newly published service pages are checked every few weeks for the first 3 months (SEO tags, content relevance, are patients finding the right content?). Service leads whose pages are already well established are contacted every 5 months to check that the content is still relevant and helpful for patients. |
| Hyperlinks | Every 1 month | We have a scheduled automated deep-dive review of all hyperlinks (pages, resources, assets, external webpages) every month |
| Outdated / non-compliant content | Throughout the year |
We have a plan for all other content which doesn’t meet this standard:
We intend to treat the follow in order of priority:
|
| Assistive technology review | Ongoing | We continually look for assistive solutions to help our patients, and make adjustments depending on our subscriptions to services. |
Responsibility
Our Marketing Communications Team and Digital Team are jointly responsible for ensuring our overall compliance (tone of voice, branding, template, accessibility checked).
Contact our teams if you have any issue accessing our content on our websites, or you have any suggestions of how we might improve our services.