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Accessibility Statement

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. To rectify WCAG 2.2 AA compliance, Public Health Wales are building a new website. The website will be live from the end of March 2025. Due to the investment in the new website project, non-compliance issues of the current site will not be fixed.

This accessibility statement applies to the Public Health Wales website: https://phw.nhs.wales/

This website is run by Public Health Wales. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

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.

Accessibility on this website is guided by government standards and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). WCAG are widely accepted as the international standard for accessibility on the web.

Whilst we aim to make this website accessible to all users and achieve a WCAG  conformance level 'AA'; we continually work with stakeholders to ensure that conformance level 'A' is adhered to as a minimum.

The Recite Me translation and text-to-speech features on this website are automated. There may be inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the translations. The official text is the English/Welsh version of the website.

If you experience any accessibility issue on this site or have any comment, please contact us.

 

How accessible this website is

Version 2, published 01/06/2022

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 that has poor colour contrast 
  • 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
  • Secondary menu items change order when an item is selected
  • Some forms have error messages or labels that are not clear
  • Some moving content cannot be paused or stopped

 

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, please contact us in the first instance and we will pass your request onto the relevant team.  We will consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.

 

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact us.

 

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).

 

Technical information about this website's accessibility

Public Health Wales 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 and exemptions listed below.  

 

Non-accessible content

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

 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Version 2, published 01/06/2023

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

  • Some menus, and parts of some pages are marked up in a way that may make them confusing when accessed using Assistive Technologies.  This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value Level A
  • An empty menu is present on some pages.  This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1 Parsing Level A, and WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value Level A
  • The button used to clear any text entered in the search box does not have an accessible label.  This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value Level A
  • The button/link used to switch language presents a different, less specific, label to Assistive Technologies than to visual users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions Level A
  • Some text does not have enough contrast with its background. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) Level AA. 
  • 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
  • Some parts of some pages are not fully usable with the keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard Level A
  • Some elements have an illogical focus order.  This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order Level A
  • Secondary menu items change order when an item is selected.  This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation Level AA
  • Some forms have error messages or labels that are not clear.  This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions Level A
  • Some carousels (displayed only on small screens or at high zoom levels) do not have a method to pause or stop their movement. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide Level A

 

Disproportionate burden

There are some sections of our website of a corporate nature, which are not currently accessible and have been produced since September 2018. 

For these sections, we will identify where we know documents are non-compliant and provide contact details wherever possible.  As documentation is renewed in the future, we will ensure digital accessibility is considered.

Currently, these sections are listed as below: (and subject to change).

  • 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. 

 

Navigation and accessing information

  • There’s no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option).
  • It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.
  • It’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.

 

Content that is 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 or sharing information. For example, we occasionally have PDFs with patient information leaflets and forms published as Word documents. By December 2023, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages or online forms.

The accessibility 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 any PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018, for example Board and Committee Papers, Health Board policies and procedure documentation or statutory documentation such as Annual Reports.  However, we will endeavour to make any new PDFs or Word documents accessible wherever possible.

 

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live audio or 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 in June 2022. It will be reviewed in June 2023.

This website was last tested in June 2022. The test was carried out by the Digital Accessibility Centre in Bridgend.