Accessibility

The iconic clocktower at Medway Maritime Hospital with the sky behind it

Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to the Medway NHS Foundation Trust website.

This website is jointly run by the Communications and IT teams at Medway 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 using browser or device settings
  • 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.

How accessible this website is

We have worked hard to make sure our site is accessible to all. This has involved reviewing content, refining the navigation and making technical changes to ensure that we are compliant with WCAG 2.2.

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. You can see a full list of any issues we currently know about in the Non-accessible content section of this statement.

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact The Communications Team: communications.medwayft@nhs.net

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

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in three days.

Translating web pages

Our website does not offer a specific translation service but Google Translate provides a free and equivalent service. Please see below for steps to translate the Medway NHS Foundation Trust website into any given language:

  • Open a web browser and go to Google Translate. You don’t need a Google account to access it, because it’s free to all
  • On the right, choose the language you want to see the website in
  • Click Translate.

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).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Medway 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 2.2 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

Documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. Not all these documents are fully accessible. We are currently working on fixing these documents or replacing them with accessible HTML web pages where possible. This work will be completed by July 2025.

Documents on our website may include the following problems:

  • Some of our documents include images that do not have appropriate alt text or are decorative but not excluded for screen readers as they should be. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content (A)
  • Some of our documents do not have appropriate structure which allows for navigation with assistive technologies. This might cover headings, bookmarks, lists, or tables. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A)
  • Some of our documents include complex information which is demonstrated visually or through colour alone without appropriate alternatives for all users. This fails WCAG 1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics (A), and 1.4.1 Use of Colour (A).
  • Some of our documents include text that does not meet contrast requirements. This is normally either for heading text or occasionally labels as part of diagrams. This fails WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast Minimum (AA).
  • Not all of our documents have appropriate document titles. This fails WCAG 2.4.2 Page Titled (A)
  • Some of our documents include links which are not as descriptive as they should be. This fails WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (A).
  • Not all of our documents have an appropriate language attribute. This fails WCAG 3.1.1 Language of Page (A).

If you are having a problem with a document and require accessibility adjustments to use our content, please contact us and we will prioritise requested documents for immediate remediation.

Patient survey forms

Across the website we have five patient survey forms that you choose to complete if you have recently interacted with our services. These forms are provided on the Trust’s behalf by a third party platform we want these to be as accessible as possible to ensure all users can provide feedback.

If you are having any problems with one of our patient survey forms you can contact communications.medwayft@nhs.net to provide feedback.

Our third party patient survey forms have the following issues:

  • Some fields are not correctly labelled across the form which may stop screen reader users from hearing the questions they are meant to answer. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A) and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A)
  • The Google translate link as well as some vestigial test form elements do not receive focus indication but are still included in the tab order which may confuse some keyboard and screen reader users. This fails WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible (AA)
  • For keyboard and screen reader users, when moving through a radio button question grouping, any move immediately moves the user to the next question. This makes the form significantly difficult for keyboard and screen reader users to complete. This fails WCAG 3.2.1 On Focus (A)

This is not a comprehensive list as we are still identifying accessibility issues. If you find an issue that we have yet to identify, please contact us using one of the routes described in the ‘Feedback and contact information’ section of this statement.

Disproportionate burden

At this time, we have made no claims of disproportionate burden.

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

Third party content

Some of the content hosted on our website or linked to by us is created by third parties. We have no control over the accessibility of these documents and encourage third parties we work with to make their documents as accessible as possible. The accessibility regulations do not require us to manage these kinds of content.

Video content

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. We also have some existing pre-recorded video content that was published before the 23rd September 2020. This content is also exempt from the regulations. All new video content we produce will have appropriate captions, audio descriptions and transcripts as necessary.

Online Maps

Our service includes the use of online maps to show certain geographical information. These are not used for navigational purposes and are exempt under the regulations. However, we will always attempt to provide as much related information as possible in text, e.g. postcodes and directions. If you require the information presented in an online map in a different format, please contact us to discuss reasonable adjustments.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We plan to identify and fix accessibility issues on a continuous basis.

  • We continue to remove inaccessible documents which aren’t needed as soon as possible. Where information is still required, we plan to fix the document or republish it in HTML format
  • We have a number of other non-accessible documents such as Trust Board and Council of Governors papers, and Trust publications. We are working on fixing these documents by the end of July 2024.
  • There are some documents designed for printing. This includes our News@Medway magazine.

If you require one of these documents in an accessible format, please contact communications.medwayft@nhs.net.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 20 March 2024. It was last reviewed on 10 January 2025.

This website was last tested on 19 March 2024 against the WCAG 2.2 standard. The test was carried out by All Able Ltd.

A representative sample of pages of the website were tested along with a sample of the documents from each area of the website. Testing was composed of a mixture of manual, semi-automated and assistive technology testing.