How we decided our objectives
As a learning disability trust, accessibility is important to us. When we created this website, making it accessible was a priority. It continues to be a priority as we add and update information.
The majority of our website is accessible however we know that some of our documents do not meet the accessibility requirements.
The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018, if they are not essential to the provision of our services. We do not intend to create accessible versions of these documents.
We also have a disproportionate burden assessment for documents not essential to patient care and the provision of our services published after September 2018.
However, we believe that meeting the objectives in our roadmap will continue to improve the accessibility of the information we share.
Documents on our website are created by people from all across our Trust. It is more realistic that we will be able to publish accessible content when accessibility has been considered by document authors from the start. Therefore, a key priority in our accessibility roadmap is educating more staff about accessibility.
Our objectives
Ongoing: We aim to develop a culture where creating accessible information is embedded in teams across our trust. We will continue our internal accessibility campaign to give colleagues the tools to do just that. Our campaign runs throughout the year to signpost staff to information about accessibility including why it is important and how to create accessible content. This runs alongside more targeted training sessions for teams that regularly create and publish information.
Summer 2025: Review easy read documents on our website and work with our website suppliers to create html versions that meet accessibility legislation.
Implement a way to record common issues and fixes and share best practice – so we can reduce the number of accessibility issues over the next year.
Autumn 2025: Focus on co-creation activity and accessibility so that when our colleagues create information with patients and carers it meets all accessibility standards.
Create a trust style guide that includes information about creating accessible content.
Winter 2025: Back to basics internal audit with a focus on alt text, headings and links. Training provided to content editors where necessary.
Actively identify accessibility barriers by creating a feedback process so website visitors can report any accessibility issues that they have with our website. Focus on key areas for improvement.
Spring 2026: Review of our trust templates to ensure they are compliant with accessibility legislation and update any as required.
By following this roadmap, we expect the number of non-accessible documents we publish to decrease.
Yearly accessibility audits
This website is audited every year. We look to address anything that the audit highlights to us. The last audit was in January 2025.
Of the pages that were audited in our 2025 audit, there were some issues of non-compliance, which we have fixed:
- We changed the colour contrast in some places so that users with low vision or colour blindness find it easier to navigate and interact with the page effectively.
- We made some changes to our A to Z menu so they are easier to use, especially for users relying on assistive technology.
- We updated some of our links so that their purpose was clearer.
- We updated the disproportionate burden statement to include information on the Easy Read PDFs we currently publish.
If you have any feedback, please email [email protected]
Our accessibility journey so far
We keep working on our website so that the information we share is easy to find, easy to understand and supports patient care. This includes:
- Autumn 2023: Update our policy process to signpost policy writers and other document authors to our information for staff about how to write accessible content.
- Autumn 2023: Update our policy process to ask policy writers to use the check accessibility function in Word and fix all errors.
- Winter 2023-24: Make sure staff have access to Word templates that make it easier to create content that is accessible.
- Spring 2024: Relaunch our educational internal campaign about accessibility.
