Accessibility Support

AccessAble have produced online access guides in a great deal of detail for QMC and City Hospital.

During our initial survey, surveyors from AccessAble spent several months at our hospitals surveying corridors, wards, parking facilities, clinics and other public areas of the hospital for ease of wheelchair access, WC facilities, access to interpreters, large print information leaflets and many other criteria.

Access guides for wards at:

Nottingham City Hospital

Queens Medical Centre

This website has translation tools built in. Click on the 'Accessibility Tool' button at the top of any page to access the Accessibility menu, from here you can alter the language of the website to one of your choice.

How to translate a PDF

If there is a document on the website that you would like to translate into another language other than English. You can use Google Document Translator.

This translator uses the same technology as the website translator and can translate documents.

• Download the PDF/Word document
• Upload to the Google Document Translator website
• Click Translate
• Open the newly translated document

How accurate is Google Translate?

Since its inception in 2006, it has become one of the top-rated machine translation (MT) tools, currently supporting 133 languages, having added 24 in 2022. Accuracy varies depending on language pair and content type, though some reports show Google Translate reaching 94% accuracy.

Change Text Size with Zoom

Most web browsers let you increase and decrease the size of text, images, and other web page content with "zoom" features. Some browsers let you choose to zoom only the text size.

To change the zoom in most browsers, press the following two keys at the same time:

• In Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS:
  • To zoom bigger: "Ctrl" and "+" keys
  • To zoom smaller: "Ctrl" and "-" keys
• Mac OS:
  • To zoom bigger: "⌘" and "+" keys
  • To zoom smaller: "⌘" and "-" keys

Browsers provide specific guidance on different ways to change the page zoom or text-only zoom:

• Google Chrome - Change text, image, and video sizes (zoom)
• Apple Safari - Zoom in on webpages
• Mozilla Firefox - Font size and zoom
• Opera - Zoom
• Internet Explorer - Ease of access options
• Microsoft Edge - Ease of Access in Microsoft Edge
• Vivaldi - Zooming options in Vivaldi

Other Text and Color Changes

Some browsers provide functionality to set different aspects of font and color in the default view.

• Mozilla Firefox - Change the fonts and colors websites use
• Opera - Look and feel > Fonts
• Microsoft Internet Explorer - Ease of Access Options

Other text and color settings are available in Reader View.

Reader View

Most browsers offer a “Reader View” or “Reading View” that shows just the main content; it gets rid of navigation, ads, etc. Some browsers let you set the text font, text size, text color, background color, and line spacing in Reader View.

• Apple Safari - Hide ads when reading articles
• Mozilla Firefox - Reader View for clutter-free web pages
• Microsoft Edge - Change font style and size for Reading view in Microsoft Edge
• Vivaldi - Reader View

Narrator is a screen-reading app that's built into Windows 10 and Windows 11, so there's nothing you need to download or install. This guide describes how to use Narrator with Windows so that you can start using apps, browsing the web, and more.

Two ways to start and stop Narrator

• Press the Windows logo key + Ctrl + Enter together to start Narrator. Press these keys again to stop Narrator. (On older versions of Windows, the command was the Windows logo key + Enter.) On many keyboards, the Windows logo key is located on the bottom row of keys, to the left or right of the Alt key.

• Press the Windows logo key + Ctrl + N to open Narrator settings, and then turn on the toggle under Use Narrator.

If you need to call Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, there is a service that can help, Relay UK.

Search for Relay UK on the App Store for iPhone or iPad and at Google Play for Android devices and then simply follow the instructions.

We hope that by downloading the App, NUH will be able to provide a seamless call experience for our deaf care customers.

If you need information on this website in a different format like a PDF, easy read document or braille: email nuhnt.digitalcomms@nhs.net and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

If you require information in an audio format or in large print, you can do this by enabling the ReciteMe tool on the home page under accessibility tools.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not yet fully accessible and we are committed to making this website as accessible as we can, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

A particular issue is many of our documents are in PDF format and are partially accessible.

This website currently partially conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard.

Based on the SilkTide index our ratings are currently: (as of February 2025)

Level A — 95.6%
Level AA — 86.2%
Level AAA — 82%

We review this website reguarly using a variety of accessibility audit tools to complete an audit of our website along with manual audits by a third party. This will involve reviewing content and making technical changes to ensure we are confirming to WCAG 2.1 AA Standard.

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 email nuhnt.digitalcomms@nhs.net to report this. This helps us improve.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliance(s) and the exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

We do not yet know the full extent of non-accessible content until a planned audit has taken place. However, we are aware of the below issues:

• PDF files: We have more than 5,000 PDF files on our website that are partially compliant with the WCAG 2.1 AA Standard. Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services or discharging our legal duties. For example, PDFs with information on how users can access our services, Trust Board papers, and Annual Reports are formatted as PDFs. Wherever possible, we will avoid using PDFs, and instead create content as structured web pages. Some pages have links to PDFs from other third-party websites that include patient information, which we have no control over.

This is not a comprehensive list as we are still identifying some accessibility issues.

Disproportionate burden

Trust Board Papers. These PDF documents regularly contain hundreds of pages which contain scanned images, large reports that have been sourced from multiple departments. They are also compiled and uploaded only hours before they are legally required to be available to the public, a delay would risk a fine or a cancelled public meeting. The small numbers of views on these documents doesn’t justify the cost of time, effort and resource to fix them.

We are reviewing these PDFs with the aim to make them accessible in the future.

We advise all interested parties to contact nuhnt.digitalcomms@nhs.net to talk through any information that might be required.

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

Our website contains some third-party content that we do not have control over and are not responsible for the accessibility of this content, but we endeavour to work with the third party to improve its accessibility. This may include:

• links to non-NUH websites
• content or functionality embedded in, but not a part of our website. This includes
  • Embedded job search boards on Current jobs | NUH
• content hosted on other websites, such as social media sites

We are reducing the use of documents across the website.

Alongside our planned Audits by a third party provider we are also reguarly checking the website using various Accessibility Checkers to ensure we remain accessible with WCAG 2.2 Standards

We will be using the SilkTide accessibility solution platform from 1 March 2025, to scan our website for issues and fix any found as soon as possible.

 

A planned audit by VerseOne is taking place in December 2024, March 2025 and July 2025. The website has recently been redesigned to improve accessibility. 

We are currently rated at 90% accessible by SilkTide for UK NHS Trusts.

A sample of the website was tested in May 2023 by Government Digital Service, against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard.

Based on their testing, this site was partially compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA. This means there are some things which are not fully accessible. They used a mixture of simple manual checks and automated tests to find only the most common barriers to users with accessibility needs.

• Manual checks included using each page without a mouse, viewing the page at different zoom settings, and simulating viewing the page on a small screen.
• The automated tests were completed using the latest version of Axe.
• Tests were completed using different settings in the Google Chrome browser on macOS with a 13 inch screen.

These issues were fixed and no further issues were found. Read the GDS report.

When we were developing this website with our website provider “VerseOne” they ensured that the content was checked prior to “going live” by experienced users of adaptive technology for access by people who have

• No vision
• Low vision
• Colour blindness
• Dyslexia
• Deafness
• Mobility Impairment
• Learning Difficulties

Our website includes some built-in Accessibility Checks – For example – if we try to publish a photograph without including a description of what’s on it, the website content management system alerts us to that fact and makes sure that we do.

Our website includes the facility for people using it to be able to change the contrast of the site and view in either black and blue font on a yellow background or yellow and blue font on a black background. The button to activate this function can be found after clicking on the Accessibility Tools box at the top right of each webpage, which usually is highlighted in pink.

Browser compatibility

This site has been developed and tested in several desktop and mobile device internet browsers using Responsive Web Design techniques. This means that you should be able to comfortably view the site on either a computer screen, smartphone or tablet. Certain aspects of this site will not work in browsers more than 3-4 years old. We very much recommend upgrading your internet browser to a more recent release.

Other languages

Visitors to our site who wish to access information in other languages may use the Google Translate® service or ReciteMe toolbar, which is available on every page in our website header under the accessibility tools button. The Google Translator and ReciteMe toolbar is a third party service and any use of its translation services is subject to its rules or requirements.

The translations are made through an automated process which may not result in accurate or precise translations. Anyone using the these tools does so at his or her own risk and the user accepts the legal implications of any shortcomings or differences in the translation.