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Accessibility

We are running a trial walk-in and wait clinic in our Harrogate YSH centre on Tuesdays from 4:00pm - 6:00pm. - Click here for more information.

Unfortunately, the lift at our Heatherdene, Harrogate service is out of order. If you require disabled access, please contact our central booking line on 01904 721111 to arrange an appropriate appointment at one of our other services.

Accessibility statement

This Accessibility Statement covers York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust website www.yorsexualhealth.org.uk

This website is run by York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should 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).

In many browsers, you can zoom by holding CTRL and pressing + or - .  Some browsers also support zooming by holding CTRL and using the mouse scroll wheel. Please see your specific browser help pages if you are having difficulty.

AbilityNet also has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability. 

How accessible this website is 

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website but we know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • some tables do not have row headers
  • some of the non-decorative images and buttons do not have appropriate text equivalent
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • many of our videos are embedded from YouTube and may feature labelling from YouTube itself, which is incorrect or not sufficiently descriptive
  • some content is embedded in our website, such as maps and videos, and you cannot easily scale these on screen (but you can open a full screen version)
  • you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader.

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 please:

  • email: nichola.greenwood@york.nhs.uk
  • call: 01904 724125
  • write to: Nichola Greenwood, Lead for Patient Equality & Diversity, 4th floor Corporate Services, York Hospital, Wigginton Road, York, YO31 8HE

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 21 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, please contact the Communications Team. We will need to know the details of the page you are looking at, information you thought should be clearer and anything else you think would help us to improve it.

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

York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation 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 the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

1. On some pages the colour of the text and the colour of the background are not in sufficient contrast to each other. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.4.3 (Contrast, minimum).

We will work with our web provider to fix this issue by February 2024.

2. Some of our page titles are long, causing a technical fail on descriptive titles for web pages, which requires titles to be short. In most cases, this is related to names of clinical procedures.

We are not going to fix this, as the content is still understandable, and changing titles might cause compliance issues.

3. Some images and buttons 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 non-decorative images by September 2021. The WCAG criteria makes a distinction about non-text content that is “pure decoration” and “used only for visual formatting”, so long as it is implemented in a way that it can be ignored by assistive technology like screen readers.

When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

4. Some images contain text that does not meet minimum colour contrast requirements.

Images with insufficient colour contrast are not compliant with WCAG guideline 1.4.3. We will correct the contrast on these images over time as we review each page.

5. We are aware that some link text doesn't make sense when read on its own (for example 'click here') and on some pages there are multiple links with the same link text but different destinations on one page. This can introduce confusion for keyboard and screen reader users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose (in context)).

We plan to fix this as we renew and refresh each page of the website. 

6. Some of the page content is not labelled as being in the body, main, header or footer sections of the page. This may lead to confusing or inaccurate screen reader output. This does not meet WCAG success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).

We plan to fix this as we renew and refresh each page of the website. 

Disproportionate burden

Navigation and accessing information

There is no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option). This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 (bypass blocks). 

Our website is based on an open-source content management system and we believe it would be a disproportionate burden to amend this. We will continue to work with our third-party CMS supplier to understand whether this can be addressed in a proportionate way.

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

This section covers issues that we do not need to fix right now. The law calls these exemptions.

PDFs and other documents

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.

Some of our older PDFs and documents don’t meet accessibility standards.

We don't intend to make some documents that are non essential to providing our services accessible. However, we know some of our PDFs and other documents are essential to providing our services, such as our patient information leaflets. We plan to replace these key documents with new PDFs which meet accessibility standards as soon as they due for renewal.

Any new PDFs or documents we publish that are essential to accessing our services will meet accessibility standards.

Useful information about ways to make Acrobat documents more accessible is provided on Adobe’s website. Further information can be found on Adobe pages on accessibility.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was initially prepared 8 September 2020 and audited in January 2024.
This statement's next review will be in February 2024.