Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Compliance status
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliance(s) and the exemptions listed below.
Non-accessible content
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
We are aware of the following issues:
- Non-text content: some images do 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). Work to correct this is ongoing.
- PDF files: We have 772 PDF files on our website that are partially compliant with the WCAG 2.1 AA Standard. Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services or discharging our legal duties. For example, PDFs with information on how users can access our services, Trust Board papers, and Annual Reports are formatted as PDFs. Wherever possible, we will avoid using PDFs, and instead create content as structured web pages.
- Not all of our content reaches our target reading age of 12-years old.
This is not a comprehensive list as we are still identifying some accessibility issues.
Disproportionate burden
Trust Board Papers
These PDF documents regularly contain hundreds of pages which contain scanned images, large reports that have been sourced from multiple departments, and spreadsheet data. They are also compiled and uploaded only hours before they are legally required to be available to the public, a delay would risk a fine or a cancelled public meeting. The small numbers of views on these documents doesn't justify the cost of time, effort and resource to fix them.
We are reviewing these PDFs with the aim to make them accessible in the future.
We advise all interested parties to contact Membership@mpft.nhs.uk to talk through any information that might be required in a fully accessible format.
Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
Our website contains some third-party content that we do not have control over and are not responsible for the accessibility of this content, but we endeavour to work with the third party to improve its accessibility. This may include:
- some pages have links to PDFs from other third-party websites that include patient information, which we have no control over
- links to non-MPFT websites
- content or functionality embedded in, but not a part of our website. This includes:
- content hosted on other websites, such as social media sites
- Google Translate feedback form. We are aware that the Google form, when asking the user to rate the translation, does not meet the following accessibility guidelines:
- Identify the purpose of fields programmatically
- Ensure form controls have labels
- Ensure controls change appearance when they are selected
- Add a submit button to all forms
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
A new website is in development and is expected to go live towards the end of 2024. Accessibility of that new website will be a significant improvement on the current site.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on Friday 16 August 2024. The next review will be August 2025.
It is based on the Silktide report and a sample of the website that was tested in May 2023 by Government Digital Service, against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard. You can read the GDS report on their website.
Based on their testing, this site is partially compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA. This means there are some things which are not fully accessible. They used a mixture of simple manual checks and automated tests to find only the most common barriers to users with accessibility needs. They do expect the organisation (MPFT) to fully audit the website to find any other accessibility issues.
- Manual checks included using each page without a mouse, viewing the page at different zoom settings, and simulating viewing the page on a small screen.
- The automated tests were completed using the latest version of Axe.
- Tests were completed using different settings in the Google Chrome browser on macOS with a 13 inch screen.
