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Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to the website for Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust https://www.gatesheadhealth.nhs.uk/

This website is run by Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust. 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
  • 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

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:

  • Some PDF and Word documents are not fully accessible
  • Some of our videos do not include transcripts

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 email [email protected].

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 7 days.

If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, call or email us for directions.

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, please email [email protected].

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

Gateshead Health 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 and exemptions’ listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some of our documents do not meet the required accessibility standards. If you require a PDF or a Word document in an accessible format such as large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please email [email protected].

PDFs   

Video

Some videos across the site are without any captions and transcripts. However, we’re in the process of going through our video clips and have included the option of having captions on through YouTube, and are including transcripts where we can.

  • 1.1.1 Non-text content
  • 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded)
  • 1.2.5 Audio Descriptions (Prerecorded)

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 are 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 

Both our Board papers and our Annual Reports contain hundreds of pages including images, tables and charts from multiple departments making them very difficult and time consuming to make completely accessible or convert to HTML for the limited number of interested users.

If you are having problems using these PDFs, contact us for assistance.

Video

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. 

3rd party content

Our Google Maps, Google Translate and Twitter timeline are third-party content which is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. 

What we’re doing to improve our accessibility

We are aware that our website does not currently allow everyone to access all the information provided in a fully accessible format. We are working to improve this and are in the process auditing our content and fixing issues.

If you need help with accessing any of the information on this site, please contact the communications team at [email protected] 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 20 November 2023. It was last reviewed on 20 November 2023.

This website was last tested on 1 September 2023 by the Government Digital Services using a mixture of manual checks and automated tests to find only the most common barriers to users with accessibility needs.

Manual checks included using each page without a mouse, viewing the page at different zoom settings, and simulating viewing the page on a small screen.

The automated tests were completed using the latest version of Axe.

Tests were completed using different settings in the Google Chrome browser on Mac OSX with a 13 inch screen.

A full audit is underway to check for other accessibility issues.

We will test:

  • Our main website platform
  • A selection of content pages, service and resources from across the site

We will update this accessibility statement with any relevant changes immediately. This websites accessibility will be retested again in November 2024.