Accessibility

accessibility statement

Contents

1. Accessibility statement for The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust's website 'Best Patient Care, Clinical Research and You'

This accessibility statement applies to The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust's website 'Best Patient Care, Clinical Research and You'. This website is run by The Research & Development Department at the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust.

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

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

pages listed under our drop-down navigation menus are not easily accessible to keyboard users
you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen-reader
you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
the colour contrast of the text in the navigation bar is low.

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:

email [email protected]
call 01709 426066 / 426063.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 24 hours (weekdays).

If you are unable to view the maps on our departmental page, please call (01709 426066 / 426063) or email us [email protected] for directions.

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, contact us on [email protected] or 01709 426066 / 426063.

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).

2. Contacting us by phone or visiting in person
We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.
Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter. Find out how to contact us: www.rftclinicalresearch.co.uk/nhs-rd.html.

3. Technical information about this website's accessibility
The Research & Development Department at The Rotherham NHS Foundation 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 and exemptions listed below.

4. Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

There are some empty links on the site. This can cause confusion for keyboard and screen-reader users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose (in context)). We plan to identify and remove these links in December 2024.
The colour contrast of the text in the navigation bar is too low. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)Level). We plan to change the colour contrast by December 2024.

Disproportionate burden
A number of current accessibility issues are related to limitations of our content management software (CMS). At present it would be a disproportionate burden to recreate our site in a new CMS but we will plan to address these accessibility issues when we next review our editing software and supplier. In the meantime we will seek to provide workarounds and material in alternative formats: please see our Accessibility Roadmap for details.

Sub-pages listed under our drop-down top level menu headers are not navigable with a keyboard. This makes the site hard to navigate and utilise for keyboard-only users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion (2.1.1 Keyboard). We will provide easy access to the pages though site maps and improved section landing pages by December 2024.
There is no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option). This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 (bypass blocks).

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when the supplier contract is up for renewal, likely to be in six months.

5. What we're doing to improve accessibility
Our Accessibility Roadmap shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website.

6. Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 7th June 2021. It was last reviewed on 1st August 2023.

This website was last tested on 7th June 2021. The test was carried out by our KM Specialist (Resources) in the Library & Knowledge Service.

We conducted a basic accessibility check following the criteria set out on the UK government website: Doing a basic accessibility check.

We sampled pages on our site with the features and content described in the guidance: the site’s homepage; content pages that are mostly text based; images, video and audio content; interactive tools and transactions, like forms; PDFs and other document types; navigation pages, including the sitemap and pages with search functionality; pages containing information about accessibility, contact details, how to use the site, legal information (for examples terms and conditions pages/privacy policy) and any settings or preferences pages.

Sample pages used in the accessibility check:

https://www.rftclinicalresearch.co.uk/
https://www.rftclinicalresearch.co.uk/why-research-is-important.html
https://www.rftclinicalresearch.co.uk/departments.html
https://www.rftclinicalresearch.co.uk/clinical-staff.html
https://www.rftclinicalresearch.co.uk/privacy-policy.html
https://www.rftclinicalresearch.co.uk/contact.html

The full accessibility test report is available on request. Please contact us by calling 01709 426066 / 426063 or emailing [email protected].