Accessibility Statement

How you can use this website

This accessibility statement applies to East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust website.

This website is run by the Communications Team at East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It is designed to be used by as many people as possible. You should be able to:

  • Change colours, contrast levels and fonts

  • Increase font size

  • Zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen and without content being truncated or overlapping

  • 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, VoiceOver and Talkback)

We've worked hard to make the website text as simple to understand as possible but recognise that not all pages are currently written in plain English.

Some of our content is also technical and is sometimes aimed at medical professionals. We use technical terms where there is no easier wording we could use without changing what the text means.

If you have a disability, AbilityNet offer advice to help to make your device easier to use.

How accessible this website is

We have worked hard to make sure our site is accessible to all. This has involved reviewing content, refining the navigation and making technical changes to ensure we are compliant with WCAG 2.1.

We are also working with Silktide Index to improve accessibility.

Since the beginning of 2023 we have fixed hundreds of issues allowing screen-readers and keyboard only users to navigate our site more smoothly.

With this in mind, we are always looking to improve accessibility and there are some parts of this website which are not fully accessible.

Examples include:

  • Some pages and document attachments are not clearly written

  • We have a large number of old publication documents which are in PDF format, and haven’t been designed for accessibility

  • A few links are not optimised for accessibility.

Please note: This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of fixes, as some accessibility issues are still being identified.

How we tested this website

We have acquired software from Silktide to constantly monitor our site for compliance.

This website is constantly being tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level A, level AA and AAA where possible, these tests are being carried out internally.

Translating web pages

Our website does not offer a specific translation service, but Google Translate does provide a free and equivalent service. Please see below for steps to translate the East Kent Hospitals website into any given language:

  1. Open a web browser and go to Google Translate. You don't need a Google account to access it, because it's free to all

  2. On the right, choose the language you want to see the website in

  3. Click Translate.

How to request information in an accessible format

If you need information in a different format, please contact our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team and provide the following details:

  • The web address (URL) of the content

  • Your name and email address

  • The format you need, for example, audio CD, braille, BSL or large print, accessible PDF

Reporting accessibility or technical problems

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website.

If you find any problems or accessibility issues that are not listed on this page, please contact ekhuft.staffzone@nhs.net.

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 contact us with a complaint about the accessibility of our website and you are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website's accessibility

East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation 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 to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content that does not meet accessibility guidelines 2.1 is outlined below with details of:

Where it fails the success criteria

Identified issues:

  • This website contains a large number of documents, mainly in PDF format, some of which are not fully accessible to screen reader software

This is not a comprehensive list as some accessibility issues are still being identified.

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

  • While we aim to make all of our content compliant where possible, we may not add captions to all pre-recorded video published before 23 September 2020, as this is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations

  • Online maps - those embedded from digital mapping services such as Google Maps, and maps made available in formats such as PDF - are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. However, we will always attempt to provide as much related information as possible in text, e.g. postcodes and directions.

Issues with technology

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

However, this website no longer supports Internet Explorer, as this browser is now at the end of its lifecycle. Read more about the withdrawal of IE support.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We plan to identify and fix issues on a continuous basis.

  • Work is continuing to remove documents which aren't needed as soon as possible. Where information is still required, we plan to republish it in HTML format

  • There are some documents designed for printing. These include our annual reports and Our Hospitals magazine. We'll continue to offer these as PDFs together with a HTML page that includes a summary of the document.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 24 March 2023. It was last reviewed on 24 March 2023.

We tested or assessed each piece of content as the website was built, using the following as reference: