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Accessibility

This accessibility statement applies to the Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) website.

This website is run by Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW). 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.

How accessible this website is

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

  • Parts of some pages may not work well with Assistive Technologies such as screen readers
  • Some menus are not fully accessible
  • Some buttons and links do not have accessible descriptions
  • Some pages contain text that has poor colour contrast
  • Some pages contain headings that are not logically ordered
  • Some pages are not fully usable with the keyboard
  • Some pages have an illogical focus order
  • Secondary menu items change order when an item is selected
  • Some forms have error messages or labels that are not clear
  • You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Live video streams do not have captions

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:

We'll consider your request and get back to you in a maximum of 30 working days.

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: heiw.digital@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).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We are looking into the option to 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.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) 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. The ‘non-compliances and exemptions’ are 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:

  • Incorrect use of menu attributes - WCAG Reference: Success Criterion 4.1.1 Parsing (Level A)
  • Buttons wrapped within links - WCAG Reference: Success Criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A)
  • Incorrect use of ARIA attributes - WCAG Reference: Success Criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A)
  • Info and Relationships on Secondary Menu - WCAG Reference(s): Success Criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A)
  • Unlabelled select element - WCAG Reference(s): Success Criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A)
  • Same page links functionality unclear - WCAG Reference: Success Criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A)
  • Custom elements in FAQ not available for all - WCAG Reference(s): Success Criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A)
  • Focus order illogical (iOS) - WCAG Reference: Success Criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A)
  • Name, Role, Value (iOS) - WCAG Reference: Success Criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A)
  • Non-descriptive labelling (Table List) - WCAG Reference: Success Criterion 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA)
  • Reflow - WCAG Reference: Success Criterion 1.4.10 Reflow (Level AA)
  • Expanded states not announced to screen reader - WCAG Reference: Success Criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A)

We aim to have these failings corrected by April 2021.

Disproportionate burden

Whilst we endeavour to ensure all our content 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 as below: (and subject to change).

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

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 users can access our services and forms published as Word documents. By April 2021, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages or online forms.

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 Board and Committee Papers, policies and procedure documentation or statutory documentation such as Annual Reports. However, we will endeavour to make any new PDFs or Word documents accessible wherever possible.

We occasionally publish PDFs which contain 'transcripts/scanned manuscripts or handwritten notes' for example in FOI requests - these are outside of scope and will not be fixed.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live audio or video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. However, we will always aim to provide subtitled versions of pre-recorded videos produced.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

It is our intention to continue to improve accessibility with regular internal and external audits.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared in July 2020 and reviewed in March 2021. It will be reviewed again in June 2021. This website was last tested in December 2019. The test was carried out by the Digital Accessibility Centre in Bridgend. HEIW has also carried out internal testing using the WAVE, axe, SortSite and Lighthouse accessibility tools in March 2021.