Accessibility statement

Introduction

This accessibility statement applies to the website/domain of www.scas.nhs.uk.

This website is run by South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS). 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 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 also 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, for example:

Most browsers let you skip from link to link using the Tab key. The current link will be highlighted. To move backwards, hold down Shift and press the Tab key.

We do not use access keys as they may interfere with keyboard controls of browsers and screen readers.

Supported browsers
Popular browsers are in general fully supported. If you are using an older browser, particularly older versions of Internet Explorer, we may not be able to give you a full visual experience.


How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • All our videos on YouTube. Captions / subtitles. Users may need to check their settings or click through to the full YouTube site in order to access the onscreen words – if you require a transcript for any of our videos, please contact us. To turn captions on please click the button on the embedded video player – this is reachable using the tab key
  • Most of our PDF documents are accessible to screen reader software for the reasons given below. The only ones that are not accessible are the ones where a Disproportionate burden applies.
  • If you come across an unaccessible PDF document that contains information that you need, please contact us and we will provide an accessible version.
  • Some of the links to forms and guideline documents are produced by EU or UK partners. These external documents are not stored on our servers and are not within our control.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like an accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

  • email PatientExperience@scas.nhs.uk
  • call 01869 365000
  • write to:
    South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
    Unit 7 &8 Talisman Business Centre
    Talisman Road
    Bicester
    Oxfordshire
    OX26 6HR.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible.


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 contact: PatientExperience@scas.nhs.uk

 

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) or see the NHS England page on The Accessible Information Standard (DCB1605 Accessible Information).

 

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

Find out how to contact us.

 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

SCAS is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 and The Accessible Information Standard (DCB1605 Accessible Information).

 

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-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Documents on the website

  • All our videos on YouTube. Captions / subtitles. Users may need to check their settings or click through to the full YouTube site in order to access the onscreen words – if you require a transcript for any of our videos, please contact us. To turn captions on please click the button on the embedded video player – this is reachable using the tab key
  • Most of our PDF documents are accessible to screen reader software for the reasons given below. The only ones that are not accessible are the ones where a disproportionate burden applies.
  • If you come across an unaccessible PDF document that contains information that you need, please contact us and we will provide an accessible version.
  • Some of the links to forms and guideline documents are produced by EU or UK partners. These external documents are not stored on our servers and are not within our control. 

 

Disproportionate burden

Navigation and accessing information

The SCAS website covers a variety of purposes and content types. It is hosted by our appointed hosting provider; other elements are third party hosted and maintained by external suppliers, managed and paid for by an individual Trust service or directorate.

We recently commissioned an external web design agency to help improve the html code for this website so that it is more accessible, however, our website code is not fully accessible at the moment for the following reasons:

Keyboard (WCAG 2.1.1)

– Some links under ‘Latest News’ cannot be accessed using the keyboard.
– The back to the top button is not accessible using the keyboard.
– The search magnifying glass icon is now not accessible using the keyboard. It does not open the same way as the mouse.
– At 200% zoom, links within the hamburger menu are not accessible using the keyboard.

This is a problem with the plugin used by the website developer and, unfortunately, our web hosting company is unable to resolve this.

Parsing (WCAG 4.1.1)

This ID appears twice in the website code: =”wpa_label_s” (once in the mobile navigation and once in the desktop navigation due to the way the website developer has added it).

Info on parsing: In content implemented using markup languages, elements have complete start and end tags, elements are nested according to their specifications, elements do not contain duplicate attributes, and any IDs are unique, except where the specifications allow these features. (Level A).

Every site currently must conform as much as possible to WCAG 2.1 standards and there is a process in place for WCAG 2.2 to be released in August 2023. Information about how parsing is being removed as an issue: www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/parsing.html.

See our Disproportionate burden page for details.

 

Content not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs produced before 23 September 2018 do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader.

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. For example, we do not plan to fix Board papers from before this date.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish for guidance and reports will meet accessibility standards (See Disproportionate burden exceptions above). Some fillable forms which need to be downloaded and interacted with will not be accessible until we move to a new digital solution in the future.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Pre-recorded video

We also utilise the automatic captioning and subtitling service on Youtube and Facebook. This is partially useful for our deaf and partial hearing patients.

Details of these services can be found on the relevant websites.

 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 21 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 31 July 2023.

This website was last tested on 24 July 2023. The test was carried out by our external web hosting contractor using HTML codesniffer and Sortsite, with everything tested to WCAG 2.1 Level AA and A.

They tested our main website at www.scas.nhs.uk

 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are working to improve accessibility on this website. Internally we have created an ‘Accessibility Hub’ training site on our Intranet with templates, instructions and video guides. This has been communicated to all staff who are expected to produce accessible material going forward. We have also carried out extensive staff training to our small team of web editors and implemented processes to ensure that documents we produce are easier to navigate.

We are also working closely with our Network Accessibility Lead to further improve our site in the future.

We have trained our staff to add alternative text to all images on our website.