Accessibility statement for westmidlandssde.nhs.uk

This accessibility statement applies to the West Midlands Secure Data Environment website: westmidlandssde.nhs.uk.

The website is managed by the West Midlands Secure Data Environment and is hosted by NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (NHS ML) and NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit (AGEM).

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website and we have designed it to be accessible. This means that 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)

Where possible, we have used plain language so content is easier to read. However, some of the information is aimed at a professional audience and this might use more technical terms.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact the West Midlands Secure Data Environment by email: WMSDE@uhb.nhs.uk.

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, email: WMSDE@uhb.nhs.uk.

We’ll consider your request and aim to get back to you within five 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 contact us with a complaint and you are not happy with our response, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The West Midlands Secure Data Environment 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 compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard.

Non-compliant content:

The West Midlands Secure Data Environment is not aware of any non-compliant content, although we regularly review the site as part of an ongoing programme to improve the accessibility of this website.

Other items which may affect the accessibility of this website include:

Google Language Translator

Please note that not all text may be translated accurately or be translated at all. We are not responsible for incorrect or inaccurate translations.

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 (Info and relationships 1.3.1)

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 (Meaningful sequence 1.3.2)

Images do not always have text alternatives, which means some content is not available when using text-to-speech software (Text alternatives 1.1.1)

Embedded YouTube videos

For Android users, Google recommends watching YouTube videos directly within the YouTube app where you will find further accessibility features.

For Apple users, Google recommends following the apple.com/accessibility guide for further information – https://www.apple.com/accessibility/

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

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 PDFs with more accessible content alternatives. Wherever possible, we avoid PDFs. Instead, we create content as structured web pages in HTML.

From external websites 

Some parts of this site link to or use content provided by other websites and we cannot guarantee that these resources are fully accessible.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 11 January 2024 and was last reviewed and updated on 12 November 2024.

Our website’s accessibility status is reviewed on a regular basis. This website was last tested by NHS ML on 6 November 2024.

We have tested the homepage, content pages and custom pages (searches, custom functionality) by checking the following:

• Change colours, contrast levels and fonts.
• Zoom in up to 400% 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.