CPMS Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement

NIHR is committed to making its websites and mobile applications accessible, in accordance with national legislation transposing Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council and in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This accessibility statement applies to the NIHR Central Portfolio Management System (CPMS)

Compliance status

• This website is partially compliant with WCAG 2.0/2.1AA, due to the non-compliance/exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed in the below sections is non-accessible for the following reason(s):

In a formal review undertaken by the Shaw Trust Accessibility Services, a total of 22 issues were found across the application.  The defect severity classification adheres to the following guidelines:

• Priority A issues are a barrier, preventing users from progressing (11 issues)

• Priority AA issues make the user journey more difficult without stopping users completely (11 issues)

The Priority A issues include (but are not limited to): incorrect heading structure including empty headers, unlabelled or ambiguous form fields, error handling, non-descriptive link text, conveying information using colour alone..

The Priority AA issues include (but are not limited to): insufficient colour contrast, element not visible in focus, obscured text and responsive design.

Work to resolve the remaining issues is progressing, removing a range of different WCAG errors 

The highest traffic areas of the system are the primary focus of the remediation work in CPMS.

Disproportionate burden

Legacy third party components are used in the CPMS interface. One of these causes some information to be displayed incorrectly when screen magnification is applied at 200% or above. There is no newer, accessibility compliant, version of this component available from the supplier and replacing instances of the component throughout the CPMS interface will take time and investment that is not practical and would constitute a disproportionate burden

CPMS includes links to other NIHR websites hosted by Google Sites, these are not fully WCAG 2.0/2.1 AA compliant. Fixing these accessibility issues in Google Sites is the responsibility of Google as providers of the software product. Therefore, fixes for these issues are beyond NIHR control. The only resolution to fixing these issues ourselves is to change website hosts to another supplier. We’ve assessed the cost of fixing these issues and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We continue to work with Google in providing feedback and collaborating to ensure Google’s products are as accessible as possible.

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

Documents uploaded by users are not under the control of NIHR. These documents are essential for providing our services and are not publicly shared but study representatives may elect to provide access to their wider team who may be affected by accessibility constraints.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 16th March 2023. It was last reviewed on 6th June 2024.

The CPMS application was last tested on 6th December 2022 by the Shaw Trust Accessibility Services.  The report describing the results of the review was issued to NIHR RDN on 27th January 2023.

According to the report issued by The Shaw Trust:

“Shaw Trust Accessibility Services use a combination of automated evaluation tools and in-house pan-disability user testing with assistive technologies to conduct a comprehensive accessibility audit. Accessibility audits are conducted against WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion. Testing is performed to level AA conformance unless a different level of conformance is requested”. 

Feedback and contact information

If you wish to report any accessibility challenges in using the CPMS application, or if you require any information in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact: supportmystudy@nihr.ac.uk 

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 30 days. If you do not receive a response, please contact the NIHR Service Desk at 0207 333 5060 (internal or external) or visit https://www.support.nihr.ac.uk/sp (internal only) for assistance.

Enforcement procedure

If you do not receive a response to the above request, please contact the NIHR Service Desk (details above) for further escalation.

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).

This website has been built using Google Sites. Please see the NIHR Hub Accessibility Statement which gives more information regarding the general use of Google Sites, including contact details for users who require further Accessibility support.