Accessibility statement

Accessibility statement for midandsouthessex.ics.nhs.uk 

This accessibility statement applies to midandsouthessex.ics.nhs.uk and is run by the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System, which includes information for the NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board.

We aim to make this website as accessible as possible for all users. Specifically, 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 (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We have strived to make the text on this website plain English and simple to understand.

For advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability, visit AbilityNet.

Additional guidance:

How accessible is this website?

While we strive for accessibility, certain portions of the website have limitations:

  • Some pages and attachments may use complex language
  • Some documents may have poor colour contrast
  • Many documents, especially PDFs, are not fully accessible

We are actively working to resolve these issues.

Feedback and contact information

Should you experience issues accessing the website or wish to provide positive feedback on the site’s accessibility, please:

We aim to respond to your queries within 28 days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you find any issues not mentioned above or think we’re not complying with accessibility standards, 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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Mid and South Essex Integrated Care system 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

As of November 2023, a Government Digital Service spot assessment found the website to be compliant with Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.

An independent audit in May 2024 carried out by the Digital Accessibility Centre found the site to be compliant with WCAG 2.1 up to AA standard. View our certificate of compliance.

Non accessible content

Many documents are not accessible in a number of ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure. Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, our Board papers, may not meet accessibility standards as they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2.

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.

Live video

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

Future Plans

  • As of 1 October 2023, we have 133 PDFs and 163 Word documents that we plan to review and either transfer to a HTML page or make accessible by 31 March 2024.
  • We aim to resolve all other identified issues by 31 December 2023.

Third-Party content

We cannot take responsibility for third-party content or functionality that we are legally required to display. However, for content we control, we strive to meet accessibility standards.

Third party platforms

We use other applications to provide services through our websites, for example:

Improvements and audits

At NHS Mid and South Essex, creating an accessible service is a team effort. We want our teams to make accessible services by:

  • considering accessibility at the start of their project, and throughout
  • making accessibility the whole team’s responsibility
  • researching and co-producing content with disabled users and those with lived experience
  • carrying out regular accessibility audits and testing
  • designing and building to level AA of WCAG 2.1 – which is NHS Digital policy

We have built the website inline with the NHS digital service manual. The service manual helps our teams build products and services to meet the same accessibility standards as other NHS organisations.

We are collaborating with our web developer Mixd and the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) to improve our website’s accessibility. The DAC’s independent audit found that 43% of checkpoints passed for A standards, and 55% passed for AA standards. Our goal is to resolve all A and AA issues to earn DAC’s AA certification.

To comply with UK legislation, meeting AAA standards across entire websites is not legally mandated. This is due to the impracticality of satisfying all Level AAA success criteria for certain types of content. Nonetheless, as part of the DAC assessment, we aim to make our website as accessible as possible and plan to address as many Level AAA issues as we can to ensure a fully accessible, usable, and inclusive service.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was first prepared on 7 June 2022 and last reviewed on 4 June 2024. The website was last tested on 28 May 2024 by the Digital Accessibility Centre.

To request a copy of the full independent accessibility test report, please email [email protected].