Accessibility Statement

BACK TO MAIN INDEX

How you can use this website

On this website, you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels, and fonts
• zoom in up to 300% with text staying visible on the screen, and most images scaling without resolution loss
• navigate most of the website using a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• read most of the website using a screen reader, including the latest versions of JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver
• read most of the website on devices without a screen, like a braille computer
• use the website even if Javascript is switched off

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.  

Some of our content is technical, and we use technical terms where there is no easier wording we could use without changing what the text means.

How accessible this website is

All of the pages within the website aim to conform to the Accessibility standards which are set out by the World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and other accessibility guidance. This website is tested against Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities, and user friendly for everyone. We designed all pages of this website to be fully accessible with the standards and encompass all disabilities that affect access to the website.

Reporting accessibility problems

We're 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 contact our practice manager by using our secure online contact us form.

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).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

Our surgery has audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website's accessibility

Birchington Medical Centre 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.

Reason: The Working Feedback tool does not conform with Accessibilty Standards and we are working with them to resolve this.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We continually monitor the accessibility compliance of our site and any updates made we follow strict WCAG 2.1 (AA) guidelines criteria.  

We have now integrated a new Accessibility Widget called UserWay. You can read more about this below

Userway Accessibility Widget

The UserWay Accessibility Widget offers a broad selection of functions that patients can use to meet their individual accessibility needs.

Userway provides the following accessibility functionality:

• Keyboard Navigation
• Screen Reader
• Inrease Text Size
• Stop Animations
• Tooltips
• Convert to Accessible Fonts
• Highlight Links
• Larger Cusor
• Reading Guide
• Dark Mode
• Light Mode
• Invert Colours
• Text Spacing
• Colour Desaturation
• Reveal Page Structure

Compatibility with browsers and assistive technology

This website is designed to be compatible with the following assistive technologies;

• NVDA with Internet Explorer
• NVDA with Google Chrome
• NVDA with Firefox
• NVDA with Edge
• NVDA with Safari
• JAWS with Internet Explorer
• JAWS with Google Chrome
• JAWS with Firefox
• JAWS with Edge
• JAWS with Safari

How our site looks and works is based on HTML5, CSS3 and we test for and support the following browsers:

• Google Chrome (versions in support)
• Mozilla Firefox (versions in support)
• Internet Explorer (version 11 and above)
• Microsoft Edge (versions in support)
• Apple Safari (versions in support)

How we test this website

We conduct internal testing against known accessibility issues which are not able to be found through automated testing, on a sampled basis. 

This statement was prepared on 7th June 2021. It was last reviewed on 27th November 2023 by Tree View Designs Ltd. We tested the home page and 10 random pages. Next review due 27th November 2024 by Birchington Medical Centre

Accessible features we test manually

• colour contrast, which is done at the design stage by using tools to check we meet the AAA standard of a contrast ratio of 4.5:1
• manual check against the W3C validator
• ensuring that page elements render correctly at all sizes, including when zoomed to 500%
• examining microdata markup and alt text using special tools
• checking content in a text-only browser
• using screen readers to read text aloud
• using disability simulation tools to browse the website

Accessible features we test using third party tools

• PowerMapper
• Arc Toolkit
• axe - Web Accessibility Testing
• WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool
• WebAIM Contrast Checker
• HTML_CodeSniffer
• Pa11y - Automated accessibility testing
• Markup Validation Service