Accessibility

Accessibility statement for Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust

This accessibility statement applies to Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust website: https://ambulance.nhs.wales/

This website is run by the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

• 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’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 this website are not fully accessible:

• you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• live video streams do not have captions
• some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
• you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader
• parts of some pages may not work well with Assistive Technologies such as screen readers
• some menus are not fully accessible
• some buttons and links do not have accessible descriptions
• 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

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:

• email: peci.team@wales.nhs.uk
• call: 0300 123 9207

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in the shortest possible timeframe.

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, contact: WAS.Communications@wales.nhs.uk and use ‘FOA the website manager’ as the subject line to ensure it is redirected to the correct department.

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).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust 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 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

1. 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
2. Some elements have an illogical focus order.  This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order Level A

Disproportionate burden

• 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 fixed by a third party. 

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues listed above, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when the supplier contract is up for renewal, likely to be in January 2023.

Content that’s 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 have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By September 2023, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

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 our services. For example, we do not plan to fix Trust Board and Committee Papers.

We will endeavour to make any new PDFs or Word documents we publish meet accessibility standards.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. However, we will always aim to provide subtitled versions of pre-recorded videos produced.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on November 07, 2022. It was last reviewed on November 07, 2022.