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Accessibility

This accessibility statement applies to Vine House Health Centre website (vinehouse.org)

This website is run by Vine House Health Centre. 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 using browser or device settings
  • zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using a keyboard or 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
  • some online forms that are not easy for screen readers to navigate
  • some links and images that are not self-explanatory to screen reader users
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • some embedded videos do not have captions
  • you may not be able to use the boundary map on our Registration page

We are actively working to address these issues as part of an ongoing programme to improve the accessibility of this website.

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact:

  • the surgery on via the contact page for any information in an alternative format or
  • our website provider by email — [email protected] to report any accessibility issues.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

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

We’re committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content that is not accessible is listed below together with an explanation.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Forms

  • Drop down option for Date of Appointment opens on focus with a keyboard but cannot be interacted with a keyboard
  • Form error messages mostly state ‘This field cannot be blank’ and do not provide suggestions for corrections

PDFs

  • The structure of the content is not always available to assistive technology, which makes the content difficult to understand and navigate for users of screen readers
  • The reading order of the content is not always logical, which means some content does not make sense when read out by text-to-speech software
  • Images do not always have text alternatives, which means some content is not available when using text-to-speech software

Screen readers

  • Content that is related and formed as a list in Accordions are not coded as a list
  • Some form labels are missing
  • Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information

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

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs do not meet accessibility standards. 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. We do have plans to remove or replace some of the PDFs with more accessible content alternatives. Wherever possible, we avoid PDFs. Instead we create content as structured web pages in HTML

Videos

Some of our older videos do not meet accessibility standards because they do not have captions. The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix videos published before 23 September 2020. We are actively working to add captions to the most popular older videos.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We have installed a tool to check for basic accessibility when we add new content to our site. This helps to ensure our headings are structured correctly, alternative text is provided for images, videos are captioned, links are structured well and other simple checks are performed.

Our website is provided by genpra.com. Website accessibility is an essential part of providing high quality websites for NHS GP practices. GenPra reviews the accessibility of their website templates as part of their regular development cycle and will always support our practice to resolve any accessibility issues should they arise.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 1/5/2024. It was last reviewed on 1/5/2024.

This website was last tested on 1/5/2024 against the WCAG 2.1 AA standard.

This website is based on a series of standard page templates. We tested the Home page, a standard text-based page, a standard page that includes a form, the Team page and an individual news item to ensure a representative proportion of the website was tested.

The test was carried out by GenPra. The pages were tested using automated testing tools WAVE Toolbar and AxeDev Tools. Manual checks were also undertaken with the help of ‘Intelligent Guided Tests’.