Accessibility

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 Research and Pharmacy

Compliance status

  • This website is not compliant with WCAG 2.0/2.1AA. The [non-compliance(s)] [and/or] [the exemptions] are listed below.


Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • PDF's are used on the NPCTAG, News and events, and In Conversation With pages

Disproportionate burden

The breakdown of the existing Google Sites accessibility issues summarises the existing accessibility issues with Google Sites. Fixing for these accessibility issues is the responsibility of Google as providers of the Google Sites 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

  • Almost all functionality provided by Google Sites is keyboard accessible. For example, all available site content types can be added, edited, moved and resized by keyboard. However, there are a few keyboard related items that affects keyboard users. For example:

  • In certain cases, performing a specific action causes keyboard focus to be reset.

  • Google Sites provides some form of visual indication of focus for most interactive controls. Some exceptions include:

    • The active tab in the Insert Image dialog doesn't provide any visual indication of focus

    • When initially focused, the Recent Sites grid does not show an visual indication of focus.

  • WAI-ARIA is used to expose role and state information on most elements, but some elements are not exposed correctly. For example:

    • Screen readers do not provide a consistent indication that a tile is currently being edited.

  • Most of the Google Sites UI can be interacted with through keyboard and does not require fine motor control. Examples of some of the exceptions are:

    • When adding a new sub page to the ‘Pages’ panel, the pages list is no longer reachable without using a mouse.

  • As Google Sites is a web-based application (not a document), the UI associated with its editor relies heavily on the use of associated style sheets. However, the web pages generated through Google Sites do not require style sheets in order to be readable.

  • Most of Google Sites core functionality is keyboard accessible and can be performed with assistive technology for people who are blind. There are however a few part of the Google Sites UI that cannot be used by assistive technology users. For example:

  • On the Home screen, the context menu available for each site in the Recent Sites grid cannot be reached or operated by keyboard.

  • The buttons in the page header toolbar are not marked up as a composite toolbar widget.

  • Accessibility provisions in Google Sites can be provided without requiring a separate text-only version.

  • The majority of iFrames in Google Sites are labeled in a descriptive way when used to embed other resources to a site. In some cases iFrames without a title attribute are used for technical purposes.


Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 19/03/2021. It was last reviewed on 23/06/2021.


This website was last tested on 01/09/2021. The test was conducted by the NIHR.


We used a third-party accessibility tool called WAVE to test the accessibility of this website. WAVE can identify many accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) errors, but also facilitates human evaluation of web content. A full explanation of how this tool works can be found on WAVE’s website.

Feedback and contact information

If you wish to report any accessibility challenges in using this website, or if you require any information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact:

css@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 following link to 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.