Accessibility

This section of our website includes information about accessibility:

Accessibility Statement

Last updated 19 September 2023

This accessibility statement applies to the Powys Teaching Health Board website: https://pthb.nhs.wales

This website is run by Powys Teaching Health Board. 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 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 (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:

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
A number of the PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

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 powys.engagement@wales.nhs.uk in the first instance and we will pass your request onto the relevant team.

We will consider your request and get back to you in 20 working days.

If you cannot view the maps on our pages, contact us for directions.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact: powys.engagement@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

Some of our hospitals/offices have audio induction loops, and if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter. If your visit is unplanned, we can arrange an online BSL Interpreter.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Powys Teaching Health Board 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-compliance with the accessibility regulations (last updated 19 September 2023)

Whilst we endeavour to meet ‘WCAG 2.1 AA’ we currently have the following Non-compliance issues:

Some menus and parts of some pages are marked up in a way that may make them confusing when accessed using Assistive Technologies. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value Level A
Some text does not have enough contrast with its background. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) Level AA.
Headings on some pages are not in a logical nested order. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships Level A
Some parts of some pages are not fully usable with the keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard Level A
Some elements have an illogical focus order. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order Level A
Some pages include images without a text alternative. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1. Non-text Content.

Disproportionate burden

Whilst we will prioritise patient information to ensure it 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 aim to 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 or committee papers
Performance reports which may contain complex reporting/statistical data
Policies and procedures produced since September 2018
Publications linked from our Freedom of Information pages – including disclosure logs
Publications which may have been professionally produced since September 2018 which would have to be amended by a third party.

You can read our full disproportionate burden assessment here.

Navigation and accessing information

There’s no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option).
It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.
It’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.

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, patient information leaflets and forms published as Word documents. We are currently working to fix these issues and replace these 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, Health Board 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 aim to provide subtitled versions of pre-recorded videos produced.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

As an organisation, we are:

working with colleagues to improve awareness and understanding about accessibility and what they need to do to meet the regulations;
providing guidance for making content accessible;
encouraging the use of accessible HTML content wherever possible;
encouraging services to use digital forms;
conducting accessibility testing of sample pages which include popular, as well as randomly selected pages.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared in July 2020 and updated in September 2023.

This website was tested in September 2023 by the PTHB Communications Team using a combination of Wave, Lighthouse and manual testing.

Accessibility features on our website

Accessibility on this website is guided by government standards and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG are widely accepted as the international standard for accessibility on the web.

Whilst we aim to make this website accessible to all users and achieve a conformance level 'AA'; we continually work with stakeholders to ensure that conformance level 'A' is adhered to as a minimum.

If you experience any accessibility issue on this site or have any comment, please contact us.

Adobe - Read Out Loud

Newer versions of Adobe Reader (version 7 and above) have inbuilt "read out loud" functionality. Portable Document Format (PDF) documents can be read out loud in three short steps:

Open a PDF document and click on "View"
Select "Read Out Loud"
Activate Read Out Loud

Frequently used shortcuts include:

Shift + Ctrl + Y: Activate Read Out Loud
Shift + Ctrl + V: Read current page
Shift + Ctrl + B: Read to end of document
Shift + Ctrl + C: Pause / Resume reading
Shift + Ctrl + E: Stop

Adjusting Text Size

Internet Explorer: Go to "View" on the menu bar > Select text size / zoom
Firefox: Go to "View" on the menu bar > Select text size / zoom. Alternatively hold down the "Ctrl" button on your keyboard and press the plus (+) key to increase text size. To reduce the latter hold down the "Ctrl" button and press the minus (-) key
Please note that the above settings may differ depending on the browser version.

Downloading Files

You may need to download the following readers / viewers to access different document formats on this site. These can be downloaded free from relevant external websites as indicated below: