Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to 111.wales.nhs.uk

Using this website

This website is run by the Welsh Ambulance Service. 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 200% 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
  • use 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 this website is

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

  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams do not have captions
  • some menus are not fully accessible
  • some buttons and links do not have accessible descriptions
  • some pages contain text that has poor colour contrast
  • some pages contain headings that are not logically ordered
  • some pages are not fully usable with the keyboard
  • some pages have an illogical focus order
  • secondary menu items change order when an item is selected
  • some forms have error messages or labels that are not clear
  • some moving content cannot be paused or stopped
  • parts of some pages may not work well with Assistive Technologies such as screen readers

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

Email WAS.Communications@wales.nhs.uk if you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille. Please tell us the format you need. If you use assistive technology please tell us what this is.

Reporting accessibility issues with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, contact: WAS.Communications@wales.nhs.uk. You can also contact us by telephone or post.

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, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Welsh Ambulance Service is committed to making the 111 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 non-compliances listed below.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Version 1, published 09/12/2020

Whilst we endeavour to meet ‘WCAG 2.1 AA’ we currently have the following non-compliance issues:

  • there is no skip link present on some pages. This means that users cannot skip directly to the main content of the page. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (Level A).
  • there are images present which are links but do not have associated text for screen reader users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A) and 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (Level A).
  • page titles are duplicated on many of the pages. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 Page Titled (Level A).
  • some form elements do not have labels. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A).
  • content cannot be accessed as elements are not marked up as standard elements. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships Level A, 2.1.1 Keyboard Level A and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value Level A.
  • there are duplicated id attributes present. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1 Parsing (Level A).
  • there is an image present on some pages that have no alt attribute associated to it. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A).
  • some form elements do not have visible labels. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A).
  • there is no heading level one on some pages. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) and 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (Level A).
  • there is moving content present on some pages that has no play/pause feature available to users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.3.1 Three Flashes or Below Threshold (Level A).
  • there is an incorrect aria role being used on elements in some pages. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) and 3.2.2 On Input (Level A).
  • the tab order of some pages is illogical. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A).
  • there is a link present on some pages that has a non-descriptive link text associated to it. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (Level A).
  • there are links present that do not have the correct mark up. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (Level A).
  • some radio inputs are not grouped using fieldset and legend tags meaning. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A), 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A), 4.1.3 Status Messages (Level AA) and 3.2.2 On Input (Level A)
  • the table mark-up can be confusing for screen reader users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A).
  • there is content present on the page that is truncated by a button. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1 Parsing (Level A).
  • some of the form fields have a lack of descriptive labelling. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA).
  • there is an element present on some pages that does not receive visible focus on tab. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible (Level AA).
  • the error messages are not announced to users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.3 Status Messages (Level AA).
  • the colour used to indicate when an element has received focus does not always meet the expected ratio to meet WCAG 2.1. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (Level AA).
  • the colour contrast does not always meet the required ratio to pass WCAG 2.1. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA).

How accessible our documents are

New documents we publish to access our services should be fully accessible.

However, we know that some of our older documents (published before 23 September 2018) are not accessible. For example, some of them:

  • are not marked up in a way that allows screen reader users to understand them
  • are not tagged up properly, for example they do not contain proper headings
  • are not written in plain English

Some of these are historic documents and are not essential to providing our services. These types of documents are exempt from the regulations. We do not currently have any plans to make them accessible.

If you need to access information in one of these document types, please contact us and ask for an alternative format.

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. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested in November 2020. The test was carried out by the Digital Accessibility Centre.

We tested a combination of core templates, commonly used templates and complex templates.

This statement was prepared in December 2020. 

ReciteMe banner Accessibility

The following are known accessibility issues with the ReciteMe banner (accessible via all pages);

  1. Recite Me colour options do not have descriptive accessible names. In the Recite Me toolbar across the site, there is a Colour Theme menu (spectrum icon) with 20 options to change colours across the site. Although the effect of each option can be seen visually, the name for every option is relayed through a screen reader as 'clickable A' which is not descriptive of the purpose of each option.
  2. Some Recite Me settings do not receive visible focus. In the Recite Me toolbar across the site, there is a Settings menu (cogwheel icon) which includes the following options: (i) autoplay Off/On, (ii) tooltip on hover Off/On, (iii) continuous play Off/On, and (iv) voice F/M. These options do not receive visible keyboard focus.
  3. Font choices in Recite Me are not detected as buttons or links. In the Recite Me toolbar across the site, there is a 'Select font' menu (Aa icon) with 10 options to change fonts across the site. These options are not identified as buttons or links, just as clickable items. This means that they do not appear to screen reader users when navigating via links or buttons.
  4. Some Recite Me options have no accessible name or role. In the Recite Me toolbar across the site, there is a Settings menu (cogwheel icon) which includes the following options: (i) autoplay Off/On, (ii) tooltip on hover Off/On, (iii) continuous play Off/On, and (iv) voice F/M. These options have no accessible name and are not identified as buttons or links, just as clickable items. This means that they do not appear to screen reader users when navigating via links or buttons, and cannot be identified.

These issues are expected to be resolved by the end of June 2023.

Last Update Date: June 26, 2023