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Accessibility Statement

NHS Forth Valley

Accessibility Statement

Website Accessibility Alternate Formats Reporting Issues Contact Us Known Issues

This accessibility statement applies to content published on the nhsforthvalley.com network of sites, including some which have their own domain name;

These websites are run by NHS Forth Valley Communications. We want as many people as possible to be able to use these websites. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • 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 a screen reader

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 know some parts of our websites are not fully accessible:

  • Embedded videos from other websites
  • Some Portable Document Formats (PDF) documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software. For example;
    • some PDFs do not have a logical structure based on tags and headings,
    • some PDF document properties are missing such as title, subject, author and keywords,
    • some tables in PDFs do not have column and row headers and
    • some images in PDFs do not have text alternatives.

Requesting information in an alternate format

If you need information on our websites in a different format or language like an accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille contact us by email at FV.equality@nhs.scot or by calling 01324 590886, this service is available 24/7.

Health information in different languages and formats – including BSL, Easy Read and translations can also be found on NHS Inform.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of our websites. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact the NHS Forth Valley’s web team by email at fv.webteam@nhs.scot or by using our online 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 your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Feedback and Contact information

You can contact NHS Forth Valley by:

  • Emailing us at fv.comms@nhs.scot
  • Call our general enquiry line on 01786 463031
  • Use our online form
  • BSL speakers can use the contactSCOTLAND-BSL service to make telephone calls to public, voluntary and private sectors services 24 hours a day.
    contactSCOTLAND-BSL is a Scottish Government service that connects deaf BSL users throughout Scotland through an online BSL interpreting video relay service (VRS) with all of Scotland’s public authorities and voluntary organisations (Third Sector).
    For more details about using Contact Scotland-BSl visit: contactscotland-bsl.org

For more information about ways to contact us visit our Contact Us page.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

NHS Forth Valley is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

Our websites are 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.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Many of our PDFs do not contain a relevant document title. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion PDF18: Specifying the document title using the Title entry in the document information dictionary of a PDF document. Work is ongoing to fix these issues or replace them with accessible HTML where appropriate.
  • Many of our PDFs have diagrams and/or tables. Some of these do not have a text alternative, so the information in them is not available to people using a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). Work is ongoing to fix these issues or replace them with accessible HTML where appropriate.
  • Many of our PDFs do not contain fully tagged content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion PDF3: Ensuring correct tab and reading order in PDF documents. Work is ongoing to fix these issues or replace them with accessible HTML where appropriate.
  • Many of our PDFs do not identify headings, lists or data tables correctly. This means users using screen readers may not be able to follow the structure of a document, which may affect their ability to access and understand the information. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (info and relationships). Work is ongoing to fix these issues or replace them with accessible HTML where appropriate.
  • Many of our PDFs do not contain the necessary correct tab order. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion PDF3: Ensuring correct tab and reading order in PDF documents. Work is ongoing to fix these issues or replace them with accessible HTML where appropriate.
  • Many of our PDFs contain figures which do not have alternative text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion PDF1: Applying text alternatives to images with the Alt entry in PDF documents. Work is ongoing to fix these issues or replace them with accessible HTML where appropriate.
  • Some PDFs are not hosted by us but we link to them on other websites. We have no control over the accessibility of the document in this case. We aim to only do this if the information is essential to providing services.

Disproportionate burden

Not applicable.

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

PDFs and other documents

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 services.

Any new documents published will meet accessibility standards except where it is in the interest of our patients and staff to publish information before the accessibility standard can be met.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Work is ongoing to:

  • regularly audit content and fix issues when found
  • update PDF documents to be accessible
  • make sure new documents are accessible
  • publish documents in HTML where possible, rather than PDF
  • train staff to make sure they are aware of the importance of accessibility, and how to make their documents accessible

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 10th August 2023 and will be reviewed on 10th August 2024.

Our website were last tested in August 2023. The test was carried out by NHS Forth Valley’s web team. We use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level A and level AA and tools including AXE Dev Tools to test how accessible our website is.

When deciding on a sample of pages to test, we chose based on:

  • our most popular pages
  • pages that gave a good example of each one of our templates
  • pages that included images, multimedia content and interactive elements
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