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Website accessibility

This accessibility statement applies to this NHS Wales App (This website): https://apphelp.nhs.wales/ 

There is a separate accessibility statement for the NHS Wales App

This website is run by Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • zoom in up to 200% 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 have 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 further information please refer to our Browser Accessibility Page.

 

How accessible this website is

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

  1. Some pages contain text that has poor colour contrast 
  2. Some pages contain headings that are not logically ordered
  3. Some pages are not fully usable with the keyboard
  4. Some pages have an illogical focus order

 

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 dhcw-enquiries@wales.nhs.uk in the first instance and we will pass your request on to the relevant team.  We will consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact: dhcw-enquiries@wales.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 are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

 

Technical information about this website's accessibility

NHS Wales Informatics Service 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.  

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Whilst we endeavour to meet ‘WCAG 2.1 AA’ we currently have the following Non-compliance issues:

  1. Headings on some pages are not in a logical nested order. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships Level A
  2. Some elements have an illogical focus order.  This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order Level A

 

Disproportionate burden

Whilst we will prioritise patient information to ensure it is digitally accessible wherever possible, we know there are some sections of our website of a corporate nature, which are not currently accessible and have been produced since September 2018. 

For these sections, we will identify where we know documents are non-compliant and provide contact details wherever possible.  As documentation is renewed in the future, we will ensure digital accessibility is considered.

Currently, these sections are listed below: (and subject to change).

  • Policies and procedures produced since September 2018
  • Publications which may have been professionally produced since September 2018 which would have to be fixed by a third party.

Navigation and accessing information

  • There’s no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option).
  • It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.
  • It’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.

 

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we occasionally have PDFs with information on how to use our application.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services. We do not plan to fix any PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018, for example,  procedure documentation.  However, we will endeavour to make any new PDFs or Word documents accessible wherever possible.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live audio or video streams. However, we will always aim to provide subtitled versions of pre-recorded videos produced.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We plan to identify and fix issues according to the timescales shown for each area above.

 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared in March 2024. It will be reviewed in May 2025.

This website was and is currently being tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level AA, and these tests have been carried out internally.