Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to the following websites belonging to University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust:

• www.uhb.nhs.uk
• education.uhb.nhs.uk (with or without the "www." prefix)
• research.uhb.nhs.uk (with or without the "www." prefix)
• jobs.uhb.nhs.uk (with or without the "www." prefix)

Accessibility of this website

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, if your chosen web browser supports this
• 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 screen reader software

We also aim to make the website text as simple as possible to understand. (Though, in some places, text may have been written by people who are not experts in writing for the web.)

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

• AbilityNet website

Requesting accessible formats

If you would like to request any of the information on this website in an alternative format, please let us know by contacting the Web Team.

Contact the Web Team

• 0121 371 6498
• Accessibility contact form

Reporting accessibility problems

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, please contact the Web Team.

Contact the Web Team

• 0121 371 6498
• Accessibility contact form

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 a complaint about our website's accessibility, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

• Equality Advisory and Support Service

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below. 

Non-accessible content

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

PDF documents and other downloadable files

• Downloadable documents are not adaptable by the user to suit their needs. This fails WCAG 2.1 guideline 1.3 (adaptable)
• Controlled documents and other corporate documents are published in a format which was designed to meet governance requirements for official or internal use, often when printed. The formatting of these documents may make them difficult to use for users of assistive technology such as screen reader software, and for people using their keyboard to navigate the website. This fails WCAG 2.1 guideline 2.4 (navigable)
• Some documents are designed for print, rather than publication on the web, but have been published on our websites as helpful content. Other documents have been provided in a particular format for a specific audience, where web accessibility is not a requirement due to the intended use of the file
  • Where documents have been designed specifically for print, the colours used do not always meet colour contrast requirements for web accessibility. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (contrast (minimum))
  • The formatting of these documents may make them difficult to use for users of assistive technology such as screen reader software, and for people using their keyboard to navigate the website. This fails WCAG 2.1 guideline 2.4 (navigable)
  • Includes the following documents:
    • Newsletters
    • Detailed reports, e.g. Annual Report and Accounts
    • Templates intended for completion offline in a particular format
• Some documents must be published in a pre-determined format in order to meet regulatory or other requirements. This includes, but is not limited to, controlled documents, or documents related to the meetings of the Board of Directors or Council of Governors, or other official meetings, where information must be relayed accurately and quickly to meet regulations, guidelines or other obligations. This sometimes includes documents featuring scanned images of text, which may be inaccessible to assistive technologies, such as screen reader software. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.5 (images of text)
• Some PDF documents, especially older documents, prepared by non-technical members of staff do not have default language set in the document properties. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.1 (language of page)

Where downloadable documents are made available in these formats and are not compliant, it is usually out of necessity, for the reasons stated. We will review further PDF documents before publication and will publish content in accessible formats where possible.

Embedded video

Embedded videos do not yet all have text alternatives, audio descriptions or captions as required to be accessible to all users. This fails WCAG 2.1 guideline 1.2 (time-based media). We plan to add the required alternatives for time-based media by 31 December 2023.

Forms

• Where an input error is automatically detected in an online form, the error may not be described to the user in text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.1 (error identification)
• If an input error is automatically detected suggestions for correction may not be presented to the user in text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.3 (error suggestion)

We plan to add indications and suggestions in text for all form errors by 30 April 2021.

Google reCAPTCHA

For security purposes, our online forms use Google reCAPTCHA v2, which is a version of a "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart" (CAPTCHA).

CAPTCHAs are an important security tool used to prevent automated submission of form data by malicious software (know as bots or spiders). According to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the organisation which develops international standards for the web, reCAPTCHA v2 may not be accessible to users of all technologies in all instances. For example:

• "it has been widely observed that utilizing keyboard navigation, as many assistive technology users do, no longer works. Instead, users are presented with a traditional inaccessible CAPTCHA as a fall-back mechanism." This would fail:
  • WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content)
  • WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 (keyboard)
• "audio CAPTCHAs previously available with v2 implementations are now sometimes no longer being provided. Instead users see a message that reads: 'Your computer or network may be sending automated queries. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.'" This would fail WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content)

However, testing indicates that these technologies do often work with reCAPTCHA v2.

For full details of accessibility of CAPTCHAs, please see the W3C article "Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA". Section 3.2 covers Google reCAPTCHA.

• W3C: Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA
• Google reCAPTCHA demo page
• Google reCAPTCHA: accessibility

We will review the guidance on reCAPTCHA at least once a year, and implement any changes required to make the implementation of CAPTCHAs on our website more accessible.

If you find any form on our website to be unusable due to accessibility issues, please let us know by contacting the Web Team. We will provide an alternative version of the form to allow you to submit the required data.

Contact the Web Team

• 0121 371 6498
• Accessibility contact form

Micro-sites

The following sub-sites were built before the Regulations came into effect and have yet to be checked in full for accessibility issues and made full compliant.

• www.uhb.nhs.uk/hr
• www.uhb.nhs.uk/htc

These sites may fail several WCAG 2.1 success criteria. We plan to review these sites and provide accessible alternatives, usually by incorporating the content into this website, by 31 December 2023.

If you find any accessibility issues on these websites, or would like to request their content in a more accessible format, please let us know by contacting the Web Team. 

Contact the Web Team

• 0121 371 6498
• Accessibility contact form

Legacy websites

Prior to the merger of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT) in 2018, many HEFT services had their own websites built, and continue to maintain these sites.

While these websites may still be in operation for continuity purposes, it has not been possible to provide central control or complete accessibility testing of the sites. 

These sites will almost certainly fail several WCAG 2.1 success criteria. We plan to review these sites and provide accessible alternatives, usually by incorporating the content into this website, by 31 December 2023.

If you find any accessibility issues on these websites, or would like to request their content in a more accessible format, please let us know by contacting the Web Team. 

Contact the Web Team

• 0121 371 6498
• Accessibility contact form

Disproportionate burden

Urgent information

Some of the content on our website must be made available at short notice to make it immediately available to a particular audience.

For example, information relating to the management of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic had to be published quickly, which did not allow time for correct formatting or accessibility testing.

We’ve assessed the time and financial cost of fixing the issues with urgent information. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make regular assessments of this urgent information at least once a year, and will either remove the content or improve its accessibility, where viable.

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

Older video content

While we aim to make all of our content compliant where possible, we may not add captions to all pre-recorded video published before 23 September 2020, as this is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Maps

Online maps - those embedded from digital mapping services such as Google Maps, and maps made available in formats such as PDF - are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. However, we will always attempt to provide as much related information as possible in text, e.g. postcodes and directions.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 30 April 2021. It was last reviewed on 27 April 2023.

This website was last tested on 30 April 2021. The test was carried out by the Web Team at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.

We tested or assessed each piece of content as the website was built, using the following as reference:

• The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1
• gov.uk WCAG 2.1 Primer: checklist
• W3C: Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.1
• W3C: Using ARIA
• Government Digital Service sample accessibility statement
• W3C: Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA
• Google reCAPTCHA: accessibility

We also used the following tools to test the website:

• WebAIM colour contrast checker
• WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool
• W3C Markup Validation Service