Accessibility Statement for Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
This accessibility statement applies to https://www.bsmhft.nhs.uk/
We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
- Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
- Listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver)
- Zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen
- Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
- Use most of the website using a screen magnifier
We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website may not be fully accessible:
- Some images may not have alternative text
- Some videos may not have captions
- Some of our older PDFs and Word documents may not be fully accessible to screen reader software
- Some form fields may not have appropriate labels
- Some link text may not be descriptive enough
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 us:bsmhft.commsteam@nhs.net
We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 30 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, please contact:
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, please contact the EHRC.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
BSMHFT 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 (WCAG) 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.
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)
- Some documents are designed for print, rather than publication on the web, but have been published on our websites as helpful content
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)
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.
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: 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 contact the BSMHFT Communications Team via bsmhft.commsteam@nhs.net.
Urgent information
Some of the content on our website may need to be published 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 may need to be published quickly, which may 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 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 September 2023.
Feedback and contact information
If you have any questions or concerns about the accessibility of this website, please contact us at bsmhft.commsteam@nhs.net.
