Accessibility Statement

Introduction

This website is run by Clinical Research Network Wessex. We want as many people as possible to be able to use our website, and we review all content in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

How you can use this website

On this website, you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels, and fonts

  • zoom in up to 400% with text staying visible on the screen, and most images scaling without resolution loss

  • navigate most of the website using speech recognition software

  • read most of the website using a screen reader

  • read most of the website on devices without a screen, like a braille computer

  • use the website, though not the search, even if Javascript is switched off

We've made the website text as simple as possible to understand, using plain English wherever possible. Some of our content is technical and contains scientific terms and language. In some instances, we have not been able to simplify the wording without changing the meaning of the text.

If you have a problem accessing any documents then AbilityNet has advice to help you make your device easier to use.

How accessible this website is

We have made this website as accessible as possible and we run audits to identify any new problems. The website is updated on a sporadic basis and therefore we have adopted the policy of reviewing the accessibility of changes or additions as they are written and released.

We know that some parts of the website aren't fully accessible:

  • We have some documents in PDF and other formats not designed for accessibility. We have published a full list of these documents, including the accessibility options available for each one.

  • 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 content embedded in our HTML documents is not fully accessible.

  • The site is not currently navigable when Javascript is turned off. We are developing a site map to allow navigation without Javascript.

How to get information in an accessible format

If you have problems accessing the information on this website or would like any of our work in a more accessible format please email us details of your request to studysupport.crnwessex@nihr.ac.uk. We will consider your request, and aim to respond within 5 working days

Reporting accessibility problems

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of the website.

If you find any problems which aren't listed on this page or think that we're not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, then please email studysupport.crnwessex@nihr.ac.uk with the details to let us know and help us improve.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing 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

CRN Wessex is committed to making websites 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 some older browsers will not show the site.

How our site looks and work is based on HTML5, and we test for and support the following browsers:

Internet Explorer (IE) is no longer supported by Microsoft, and while the site may work in more recent versions of IE, we do not recommend its use.

You may experience unexpected behaviour in other browsers.

Issues with links

We are aware of the following issues within the links on our site:

  • Many older PDF files contain broken links which do not resolve - we do not intend to resolve these as it is a disproportionate burden.

  • Some links on the site are not currently formatted in a compliant manner and we aim to fix these as soon as possible.

Issues with PDFs and other documents

Our site now favours the HTML format for documents and will use this format for any document owned by CRN Wessex that we upload from 23 September 2020.

PDFs are not able to comply with the requirements of the web accessibility standard. They are however widely used by research sponsors to share the key details of their studies, for example the research protocols. We consider requesting accessible versions of all documents we receive externally to be a disproportionate burden. We can however request information in an accessible format on your behalf if you contact studysupport.crnwessex@nihr.ac.uk.

Issues with images and video

We strive to make all of our image and video content accessible. All images will contain alternative text (alt text) and should be visible when zoomed to 400%.

Where videos are hosted on this site closed captions will be made available.

Issues with menus and buttons

We are aware of the following issues interacting with our site:

  • Our main navigation menu and our buttons are not always fully accessible. We have added links to all major sections in the site footer.

How we test this website

We are planning to test using the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool before publishing updated content.

The regular report will be reviewed by the CRN Wessex team, with any actions taken and prioritised into our future work. We aim to fix all high priority issues within two weeks of them being identified.

What we are doing to improve

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

Improvement work and status:

  • Add links to all sections to the page footer to make the site easier to access without pop up menus. Status: complete.

  • Add metadata to all images. Status: complete.

  • Finish converting all possible non-accessible documents to HTML format. Status: Ongoing

  • Complete accessibility code review, and make the menu, buttons and other site architecture more accessible. Status: Ongoing.

Non-Accessible Document Log

Some documents on our site are not accessible. These are listed below, along with the reason. We are working to ensure that we convert as many of these as we can to online forms or HTML format, providing the remainder in the most accessible format possible.

Document and action