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Accessibility Statement

This statement applies to the Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) website.

This website is run by HEIW. We want as many people as possible to be able to use it. For example, you should be able to:

  • zoom in up to 200% 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 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:

  • 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 text with poor colour contrast.
  • Some pages contain headings that are not logically ordered.
  • Some pages are not fully usable with a keyboard, or have an illogical focus order.
  • Secondary menu items change order when an item is selected.
  • Some forms have unclear error messages or labels.
  • 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.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, such as an accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, contact us:

We will consider your request and get back to you within a maximum of 30 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems

We are always looking to improve this website's accessibility. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, contact heiw.digital@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

We are looking into the option of providing a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

Our offices have audio induction loops. 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

HEIW 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-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Whilst we endeavour to meet WCAG 2.1 AA, we currently have the following non-compliance issues:

  • Incorrect use of menu attributes — WCAG Success Criterion 4.1.1 Parsing (Level A).
  • Buttons wrapped within links — WCAG Success Criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A).
  • Incorrect use of ARIA attributes — WCAG Success Criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A).
  • Information and relationships on the secondary menu — WCAG Success Criterion 1.3.1 (Level A).
  • Unlabelled select element — WCAG Success Criterion 1.3.1 (Level A).
  • Unclear functionality of same-page links — WCAG Success Criterion 4.1.2 (Level A).
  • Custom elements in FAQs are not available to everyone — WCAG Success Criterion 4.1.2 (Level A).
  • Illogical focus order on iOS — WCAG Success Criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A).
  • Name, Role, Value issues on iOS — WCAG Success Criterion 4.1.2 (Level A).
  • Non-descriptive labelling in table lists — WCAG Success Criterion 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA).
  • Reflow — WCAG Success Criterion 1.4.10 (Level AA).
  • Expanded states are not announced to screen readers — WCAG Success Criterion 4.1.2 (Level A).

We aim to have these failings corrected by April 2021.

Disproportionate burden

Although we endeavour to make all content digitally accessible wherever possible, some corporate sections of the website produced since September 2018 are not currently accessible.

For these sections, we will identify documents known to be non-compliant and provide contact details wherever possible. When documentation is renewed, we will consider digital accessibility.

The sections currently listed (and subject to change) are:

  • Board papers;
  • publications professionally produced since September 2018 that would need to be fixed by a third party.

Content outside the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services, such as information about accessing services and forms. By April 2021, we plan to fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages or online forms.

The 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 older documents such as board and committee papers, policies, procedures or annual reports. We will endeavour to make new PDFs and Word documents accessible wherever possible.

We occasionally publish PDFs containing transcripts, scanned manuscripts or handwritten notes, for example in FOI requests. These are outside the scope of the regulations 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 the accessibility regulations. We will always aim to provide subtitled versions of pre-recorded videos we produce.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We intend to continue improving accessibility through regular internal and external audits.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared in July 2020 and reviewed in March 2021. It was due to be reviewed again in June 2021. The website was last tested in December 2019 by the Digital Accessibility Centre in Bridgend. HEIW also carried out internal testing in March 2021 using WAVE, axe, SortSite and Lighthouse.