Accessibility Statement for Yorkshire Ambulance Service

This accessibility statement applies to all websites owned and managed by Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS).

This website is managed by Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. That means you are 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 is this website?

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

For example:

  • some pages and document attachments are not clearly written
  • some pages are not capable of zooming to 300% without text spilling off the screen
  • some pages are not easily navigable without a mouse
  • some tables do not have row headers
  • some pages have poor colour contrast
  • some heading elements are not consistent
  • some images do not have good alternative text
  • some buttons are not correctly identified
  • some error messages are not clearly associated with form controls
  • many documents are in PDF format and are not accessible
  • some content is embedded on pages, such as maps and videos, and these cannot be easily scaled on screen

We are committed to carrying out full accessibility audits on our main websites. We will be commissioning an accessibility consultant to carry out WCAG 2.1 AA level technical compliance audits, that will also include extensive testing by users with a wide range of disabilities.

Our audits are scheduled as follows:

https://www.yas.nhs.uk – Audit scheduled 2021

We will update this statement to reflect the audit findings and our plans for addressing any issues found.

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:

Or in writing to:

     Online Enquiries
     Trust Headquarters
     Brindley Way
     Wakefield 41 Business Park
     Wakefield
     WF2 0XQ

We will consider your request and get back to you within 20 working days.

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  yas.corpcomms@nhs.net, who are responsible for dealing with reported accessibility problems.

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust 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-compliance with the accessibility regulations

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).

We plan to add text alternatives for all images by September 2020. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

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

PDFs and other documents

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. By September 2020, 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. For example, we do not plan to fix rarely viewed documents that are not required for essential services.

Where possible, any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. Where this is not possible, we will endeavour to make the information available in an accessible format.  If you need documents in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille please email yas.corpcomms@nhs.net

Live video

Where possible, we will add captions to video, however for live video streams, captions are not currently possible and live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Following the completion of our WCAG 2.1 AA level technical compliance audits we will publish our accessibility roadmap of how and when we plan to improve the accessibility on the YAS websites.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 14 October 2020.