Accessibility statement

Page contents

This accessibility statement applies to www.cios.nhs.uk.

This website is run by NHS Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. The website features an accessibility toolbar that was built in-house and provides web content in a variety of formats to make content more accessible including:

• Google Translate
• change text size
• highlight links
• change font
• contrast

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand, aiming for a reading age of a 12-year-old. Some of our content is technical, and we use technical terms where there is no easier wording we could use without changing what the text means.

If you have a disability then AbilityNet has advice to help you make your device easier to use.

How accessible this website is

We have worked hard to make sure our site is accessible to everyone. This has involved reviewing content, refining the navigation and making technical changes to ensure we are compliant with the web content accessibility guidelines.

With this in mind, we are always looking to improve accessibility and there are some parts of this website which are still not fully accessible and examples include:

• some content is embedded in our website, such as videos, and you cannot easily scale these on screen (but you can open a full screen version)
• some pages and document attachments are not written in plain English
• live video streams do not have captions

How to request content in an accessible format

If you have problems accessing information on this website, or would like any of our work in a different format like a more accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording, or braille:

• email our engagement team
• call 01726 627800

We will consider your request and get back to you in 3 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, email our communications team.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission 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.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

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

Issues with technology

The vast majority of our website works correctly on any web technology.

However, this website does not support Internet Explorer, as this browser is at the end of its lifecycle. Read more information about the withdrawal of Internet Explorer support.

Issues with links

The site is scanned weekly for broken links, and we look to fix them as soon as they are identified.

Issues with PDFs and other documents

PDFs are not able to comply with the requirements of the web accessibility standard, and we do not generally upload new PDFs.

There are some exceptions:

• we add some PDFs as downloads of reports or publications, but where a web page version is also available
• our annual reports, which must, by law, be laid before parliament in a printed version, and then appear unaltered
• our directions and data provision notices which must, by law, include a signature in order to be valid
• downloads intended for print purposes, such as posters

We also have a number of forms in Microsoft Word format, which are not accessible. We will either replace these with accessible forms, or remove them, by March 2023.

Issues with images and video

We strive to make all of our content accessible. We are aware of the following issues with some of the:

• live video streams do not have captions
• images on our site which are complex diagrams where suitable alt text is not always possible

When we publish new content we will make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Issues with text and content

There are some issues with text and content which we are aware of:

• not all of our content reaches our target reading age of 12-years old
• some of our page titles are long, causing a technical fail on descriptive titles for web pages which requires titles to be short; in most cases, this is related to legal or formal names for publications

We are not going to fix page titles, as the content is still understandable, and changing titles might cause compliance issues.

How we tested this website

This website was and is currently being tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level A and level AA. These tests have been carried out using Silktide.

This statement was prepared on 1 July 2022.

Accessibility toolbar button guide

Google Translate

Use this to change the language our site appears in.

Text size

Use the plus and minus buttons to increase and decrease the font size displayed on the site. Text will be increased with each click until it is 40px large, or decreased until it is 8px small.

Highlight links

Use the yes button to highlight links. This will make all links yellow with a black background.

Change font

Use this to change the font the site appears in.

One of the fonts available in our toolbar is OpenDyslexic. It is a free font created to increase readability for readers with dyslexia. Find out more about OpenDyslexic.

Contrast

Use this to change the site’s colour scheme to:

• black and white (white text with a black background)
• black and yellow (yellow text with a black background)
• grayscale
• invert (inverts all elements to the opposite of their current colour)
• reset (resets only colour contrast changes)

Reset all changes

Use this button to reset all changes. Please note that this will not reset the language if you have changed it, you will need to select the correct language from the dropdown.

Frequently asked questions

Can I save my settings

Yes. The settings will automatically save when you navigate to another page, or if you leave the site and come back. The only setting which does not save is the text size, which we are aware of and working towards. Refreshing the page therefore does not reset to default, you must use the reset all changes button on the toolbar.

How do I change the language?

To change the language of the website that you are viewing you need to select the area marked “Select language” on the toolbar. This will then produce a drop-down list of all the languages that Google offers translation to. Find the language that you want from the list and click on it, the site will then be converted to that language.