This statement applies to the website: www.snomed.nhs.scot
This website is run by SNOMED. 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)
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:
- Some Portable Document Formats (PDF) documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software. For example;
- some PDFs do not have a logical structure based on tags and headings,
- some PDF document properties are missing such as title, subject, author and keywords,
- some tables in PDFs do not have column and row headers and
- some images in PDFs do not have text alternatives.
- some images do not have text alternatives.
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:
- email: nss.snomed@nhs.scot
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in five 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: nss.snomed@nhs.scot
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
NHS NSS is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the issues listed below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
Many documents are in less accessible formats, for example PDF. Non-HTML documents published on or after 23 September 2018 must have an accessible format.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
- Many of our PDFs do not contain a relevant document title. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion PDF18: Specifying the document title using the Title entry in the document information dictionary of a PDF document. Work is ongoing to fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages in order of patient need and frequency of use.
- Many of our PDFs have diagrams and/or tables. Some of these do not have a text alternative, so the information in them is not available to people using a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). Work is ongoing to fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages in order of patient need and frequency of use.
- Many of our PDFs do not contain fully tagged content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion PDF3: Ensuring correct tab and reading order in PDF documents. Work is ongoing to fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages in order of patient need and frequency of use.
- Many of our PDFs do not identify headings, lists or data tables correctly. This means users using screen readers may not be able to follow the structure of a document, which may affect their ability to access and understand the information. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (info and relationships). Work is ongoing to fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages in order of patient need and frequency of use.
- Many of our PDFs do not contain the necessary correct tab order. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion PDF3: Ensuring correct tab and reading order in PDF documents. Work is ongoing to fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages in order of patient need and frequency of use.
- Many of our PDFs contain figures which do not have alternative text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion PDF1: Applying text alternatives to images with the Alt entry in PDF documents. Work is ongoing to fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages in order of patient need and frequency of use.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We regularly review and actively solicit comments and suggestion on the accessibility of this website.
We will use the results of usability testing and user feedback to develop our roadmap for continuous improvement of the content on this site.
The improvements below have been identified on our current work schedule.
Work is ongoing to:
- update PDF documents to be accessible
- we will make sure new documents are accessible where possible, before they are published
- publish documents in HTML where possible, rather than PDF
- train staff to make sure they are aware of the importance of accessibility, and how to make their documents accessible
We are working to ensure all PDFs on the website are accessible by 31 March 2024.
Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. 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.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 1st December 2023. It was last reviewed on 1st December 2023.
This website template was last tested on 1st December 2023. The test was carried out by NHS NSS web support staff.
The website content was last tested on 1st December 2023. This test was carried out by SNOMED Website Administrators.
We tested a large sample size of pages from our site. Paying careful attention to make sure all types of user journey and the most popular tasks were represented, e.g. the main homepage and also the content listed under Services.
We complete our accessibility audits by testing how the site performs when accessed using accessibility tools such as Lighthouse and WAVE (to test coding elements), WebAIM and ColorZilla (to test the contrast levels between colours with hexadecimal accuracy).