How you can use this website
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
- 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’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
My Computer My Way 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 need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, email the Communication Team: communications.medwayft@nhs.net or phone 01634 974835.
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.
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: communications.medwayft@nhs.net
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
We have the following non-accessible content:
Some documents, such as Trust Board and Council of Governors papers, and Trust publications are not accessible in several ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure. We are looking into making all our documents more accessible and aim to fix these by end of December 2024.
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 ‘Reporting accessibility problems with this website’ 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
PDFs and other 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 the end of December 2024.
Not all documents will be fixed as some predate the regulations or are exempted for other reasons. If you need accessibility adjustments for a document please contact us using the methods above.
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. We are not currently aware of having any documents that fall into this category.
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. If you need accessibility adjustments for a document that may be controlled by a third party, please contact us using the methods above and we will try to help.
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 December 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.
This website was last tested on 26 March 2024. 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.
