Accessibility

This website is run by The Simpson Centre & Penn Surgery. 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 (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

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

The majority of this website is fully accessible. We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • there may be some PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Publisher documents which haven’t been designed for accessibility
  • images, which contain text, may not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information
  • embedded videos may not have captions
  • content in tables, used to format text, may not be suitably formatted for screen readers
  • some widgets, outside editing control, may fail permitted contrast ratios
  • some content is embedded in our website, such as maps and videos, and you cannot easily scale these on screen

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 call us on the number below and ask to speak to the Practice Manager

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

If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, call 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, contact us by calling the number below or writing to us at the address below and making your request for the attention of the Practice Manager.

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

Find out how to contact us on our contact details page and our address and phone number can be found below.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Simpson Centre & Penn Surgery 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 listed below.

Non accessible content

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

Issues with PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDF and Word documents are not able to comply with the requirements of the web accessibility standard. Where we create new PDFs, we use the PDF/A standard which is more accessible.

See the Content Management section below for details how we intend to check PDF and other documents to ensure they meet WCAG 2.1 AA Success Criterions; 1.1.1 (Non-text Content), 1.4.1 (Use of Colour), 1.4.3 (Contrast – Minimum), 1.4.5 (Images of Text), 2.4.3 (Focus Order), 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels), 3.2.4 (Consistent Identification). This might exclude documents published before 23 September 2018, where they’re not essential to providing our services.

Contrast Ratios not meeting requirements

Contrast Ratios, throughout the website, should meet WCAG 2.1 AA Success Criterion 1.4.3: Contrast (Minimum), however some widgets, outside Practice editing control, may fail permitted contrast ratios. Our supplier will contact any suppliers where this issue is identified.

Tables used to format text

Some tables are used to format text however they do not always work well with screen readers. See the Content Management section below for details how we intend to check tables to ensure they meet WCAG 2.1 AA Success Criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some images, which contain text, may not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). See the Content Management section below for details how we intend to check images to ensure they are of an accessible standard.

Content Management

It should be noted that practice staff are able to add content to this website using a Content Management system. Whilst every effort is made to add WCAG 2.1 AA complaint content, this might not always be possible due to lack of website accessibility experience. Therefore it is possible some documents may not be accessible, links may be added that are not meaningful, new layout tables may not read properly using a screen reader, and there may be new images added which contain text. Our website is reviewed annually either by practice staff, our supplier, or by a third party.

Disproportionate burden

We do not consider any elements to be a disproportionate burden at present as we understand WCAG 2.1 AA. Should any come to light, we will update this section.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards – for example, 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 (name, role value).

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

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.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are actively looking to improve the accessibility on our website.

The improvements below have been identified on our current work schedule:

  • Identify and correct any text in images (Annually)
  • Identify and convert any essential pdf documents (Annually)
  • Identify and convert any essential non-pdf documents (Annually)
  • Identify and convert any tables used to format text that do not work successfully with a screen reader (Annually)

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23rd October 2019. It was last updated on 8th February 2021.

The standard website template was last tested on 8th February 2021. The test was carried out by GenPra LLP.

The home page and a random sample of 10 content pages and one form from the site were tested.

Site compliance was checked using a combination of manual testing and third party tools, including: