Accessibility
Measures to support accessibility
We've developed our website with the aim of making it as easy as possible for everyone to use. It has a responsive design which means the website will adapt to your screen size and to the orientation of your phone or tablet.
We take the following measures to ensure accessibility of nhsconfed.org
- Integrate accessibility into our procurement practices
Accessibility options
You can find out about the accessibility options available in some of the most popular operating systems and browsers using the links below:
- For Windows users including Internet Explorer (Link opens in a new window)
- For Mac OS users including Safari (Link opens in a new window)
- For Apple iOS devices (Link opens in a new window)
- Chrome (Link opens in a new window)
- Firefox (Link opens in a new window)
- Android phones (Link opens in a new window)
Conformance status
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) defines requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. nhsconfed.org is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA. Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to the accessibility standard.
Technical specifications
Accessibility of nhsconfed.org relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plugins installed on your computer:
- HTML
- PHP
- Flourish
- Embedded content from third party suppliers
- Adobe PDF
These technologies are relied upon for conformance with the accessibility standards used.
Alternative text for images
All images (other than purely decorative images) have associated text that describes the content of the image. If you are using screen reading software, it should read the ‘alt text’ to you.
Limitations and alternatives
Despite our best efforts to ensure accessibility of nhsconfed.org, there may be some limitations. Below is a description of known limitations, and potential solutions. Please contact us if you observe an issue not listed below.
Known limitations for nhsconfed.org:
Some PDF's across the site: Embedded images and graphs may not have text alternatives because we cannot ensure the quality of contributions. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read PDF files. Adobe Acrobat Reader can be downloaded free of charge from the Adobe website. We can provide text only versions of all our content upon request. Please contact us to report an issue or request a text only version by emailing us.
Assessment approach
NHS Confederation assessed the accessibility of nhsconfed.org by the following approaches:
- Self-evaluation
Reachdeck
We’ve added Reachdeck (previously known as Browsealoud); the world-leading digital inclusion software from Texthelp to our website.
ReachDeck do not support some older browsers such as Internet Explorer. As ReachDeck is a third party tool, we are unable to control the browsers that they support. For older, legacy browsers we have removed the 'Accessibility help' option altogether to allow our users to interact with the website's standard accessibility functionality. You can find a list of browsers that ReachDeck supports on their website (opens in a new window).
About ReachDeck
Reachdeck helps you navigate around our site, understand our content and interact with our website independently.
Reachdeck offers a host of reading and translation support - helping you to access and understand our website better.
- text-to-speech: click on or select any text to hear it read aloud
- translation: written and spoken translations in multiple languages
- text magnification: enlarges text and reads it out loud
- mp3 generation: converts selected text into an MP3 audio file
- screen mask: blocks distractions on screen with a tinted mask
- web page simplifer: removes clutter from the screen, displaying only the main text
- settings: customize options to suit individual needs or preferences
Click on the ‘Accessibility help’ button in the header of all our website pages. This will launch the Browsealoud toolbar that docks to the top of the screen. Now click on the first ‘pointed finger’ icon on that toolbar and then hover your mouse pointer over any text to hear it read out loud.
Need more help?
For more information and help on accessibility and changing your browser settings please visit the following websites:
