Accessibility Statement

Contents

This accessibility statement applies to the NIHR Local website local.nihr.ac.uk.

This website is run by the NIHR. 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 400% with text staying visible on the screen, and most images scaling without resolution loss
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• read most of the website using a screen reader, including the latest versions of JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver
• read most of the website on devices without a screen, like a braille computer
• use the website, though not the search, even if Javascript is switched off

We've made the website text as simple as possible to understand, using plain English wherever possible.

Some of our content is technical, and contains scientific terms and language. In some instances we have not been able to simplify the wording without changing the meaning of the text.

If you have a problem accessing any documents then AbilityNet has advice to help you make your device easier to use.

How accessible this website is

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

• Some content is embedded in our website, such as videos. You cannot easily scale these on screen, but you can open a full screen version
• Some content embedded in our HTML documents is not fully accessible
• The breadcrumb trail for pages is not currently optimised for screen readers

Unsupported browsers

The vast majority of our website works correctly on any web technology.

For security reasons, we only support TLS 1.2 and higher security protocols, and this means that some older browsers will not show the site.

Internet Explorer is no longer supported by Microsoft, and while the site may work in more recent versions of IE, we do not recommend its use.

We use fully validated code which should work on any other browser. If you experience any unexpected behaviour when using a browser not mentioned above, please email crncc.comms@nihr.ac.uk.

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 email crncc.comms@nihr.ac.uk.

We’ll respond to your request in five working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of the website.

If you find any problems which aren't listed on this page, or you think we're not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, please email crncc.comms@nihr.ac.uk with the details to let us know and help us improve.

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The NIHR 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, 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

Links that are broken or have non-accessible formatting

We scan the site monthly for broken links, and look to fix them as soon as they are identified.

HTML markup errors

Due to the way our content management system assembles the HTML data used to render web pages, there are a very small number of HTML markup errors on our site. Unfortunately these cannot be fixed, but should not compromise the accessibility of our website. If you encounter an issue with HTML markup that does cause an issue, please let us know at crncc.comms@nihr.ac.uk.

Non-accessible images or video

We strive to make all of our content accessible. We are aware of the following issues with images and video on our site:

• YouTube videos on the site embedded via iframe currently do not have a title, due to an issue with our content management system. Our content management system provider is aware of the issue and is working to address this by January 2023
• A very small number of non-decorative images on our site currently do not have alt text, due to an issue with our content management system. We are aware of the issue and are working to address this by January 2023

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

In October 2020, the NIHR engaged with the Shaw Trust to assess the accessibility standards of the www.nihr.ac.uk website. This NIHR Local site is based on the www.nihr.ac.uk site, so many issues identified in this work were also relevant to the accessibility of this site. 

They tested the mobile and desktop version of our sites. On desktop they used automated testing, a technical manual review, and user testing by seven in-house assessors with a range of disabilities, some using assistive technologies.

The report found non-compliance with WCAG legislation in the below areas which also apply to this site:

We aim to resolve these issues by January 2023.

We also have monthly scans from Shaw Trust and work with our website editors and developers continuously to tackle any new issues as they arise.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared in January 2020. It was last reviewed and updated in August 2022.