This accessibility statement applies to the NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) website for England (www.sbs.nhs.uk).

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

This means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser, device, or UserWay settings
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard or 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.

Accessibility on NHS SBS

NHS SBS strives to ensure that its services are accessible to people with disabilities. NHS SBS has invested a significant amount of resources to help ensure that its website is made easier to use and more accessible for people with disabilities, with the strong belief that every person has the right to live with dignity, equality, comfort and independence.

NHS SBS makes available the UserWay Website Accessibility Widget that is powered by a dedicated accessibility server. The software allows NHS SBS to improve its compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2).

The UserWay Accessibility Widget offers a broad selection of functions that visitors can use to meet their individual accessibility needs. UserWay provides the following accessibility functionality:

• increase Text Size
• change text spacing
• change text line height
• pause animations
• change colour contrast and saturation
• tooltips
• convert to accessible fonts
• highlight links
• increase cursor size
• introduce accessibility profiles for motor impaired, blind, colour blind, dyslexia, low vision, cognitive & learning, seizure & epileptic and ADHD.

Enabling the Accessibility Menu
The NHS SBS accessibility menu can be enabled either by hitting the tab key when the page first loads or by clicking the accessibility menu icon that appears on the corner of the page. After triggering the accessibility menu, please wait a moment for the accessibility menu to load in its entirety.

In an ongoing effort to continually improve and remediate accessibility issues, we also regularly scan www.sbs.nhs.uk with UserWay’s Accessibility Scanner to identify and fix every possible accessibility barrier on our site.

Despite our efforts to make all pages and content on www.sbs.nhs.uk fully accessible, some content may not have yet been fully adapted to the strictest accessibility standards.

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

The content that is not accessible is listed below together with an explanation.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

• Images on some pages do not always have suitable image descriptions. Users of assistive technologies may not have access to information conveyed in images. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content).
• Some tables do not have table row or column headers. This means assistive technologies will not read the tables correctly. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
• Some tables are structured incorrectly, so screen readers cannot understand the relationships between information in the table. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
• Some headings do not display correctly. They may look like normal text or a different type of heading. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
• Some images include text with poor colour contrast to its background. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)).
• Some buttons include text with poor colour contrast to its background. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)).
• Some images include elements with poor colour contrast to the background. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.11 (Non-text Contrast).
• If a table is too wide to fit on the screen, the hidden information cannot be reached with a keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.1.1 (Keyboard).
• Some headings don’t accurately describe the content underneath. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels).
• The text on some buttons doesn’t accurately describe what the button does. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels).
• Some links that reveal more content can cause some screen reader users to lose their position on the page. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).
• When hovering over the navigation bar dropdown menus, there is no mechanism to dismiss the additional content triggered without moving pointer hover or keyboard focus. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.13 (Content on Hover or Focus).
• Help and error information may not announced automatically to screen readers. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.3.1 (Error Identification).
• At 400% zoom, some webpage may not reflow correctly as content is not fully visible for users. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.10 (Reflow).

Many documents are in non-HTML formats, for example PDF. They are not accessible in a number of ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure.

You can request a PDF in an accessible format via the feedback form shown at the bottom of this page. Please provide us with the PDF Title, or weblink to the PDF, within the comment section of the form and one of our team will be in touch to discuss suitable formats.

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

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.

Disproportionate burden

Some PDF documents are non-accessible. This can include including missing text alternatives and/or missing document structure. We believe that fixing the problems causing content to be non-accessible on the old platforms would be disproportionate.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

At NHS SBS, creating an accessible service is a team effort. We want our teams to make accessible services by:

• considering accessibility at the start of their project, and throughout
• introduced a cross-functional accessibility working group to make sure that accessibility remains at the core of everything we do.
• making accessibility the whole team’s responsibility
• researching with disabled users
• using a library of accessible components and patterns

We are making sure that accessibility issues highlighted in this statement are being prioritised and fixed. Measures include:

• moving away from new content being produced in PDF
• plans to remove, update or replace older PDFs with more accessible content
• ongoing improvements to our website design with a focus on accessibility
• working with third party suppliers to improve the accessibility of our website

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 give feedback about the NHS SBS website. This helps us improve.

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 SBS is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This statement was prepared on 5th December 2024. It was last reviewed on 27 February 2025.

We use a mixture of simple manual checks and automated tests to find only the most common barriers to users with accessibility needs. A representative sample of pages were tested using automated tools and our website team. A further audit of the website was carried out to the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. The automated tests were completed using the latest version of Axe.

We also used findings from our own testing when preparing this accessibility statement.

Last updated 7th March 2025
Next review due: 22nd January 2026

If you have an accessibility query you can give feedback about the NHS SBS website, including:

• if you have any problems accessing information or using this website
• if you have any positive feedback about this website’s accessibility

We aim to respond in 5 working days.

Alternative formats

We’ve designed our content to be as accessible as possible.

If you need information on this website in a different format, please give feedback about the NHS SBS website.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.