Accessibility statement for www.swast.nhs.uk
This accessibility statement applies to to the domain of www.swast.nhs.uk run by the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT).
We are committed to making our website as accessible as possible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 and The Accessible Information Standard (DCB1605 Accessible Information).
How you should be able to use this website
We want our site to be as accessible as possible for as many people as possible. We are working on improvements to meet the website accessibility Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
(WCAG 2.2) standard.
You should be able to use a range of browsers without compromising your experience, and have options to:
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- zoom in up to 400% 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.
Supported browsers - Popular browsers are, in general, fully supported. If you are using an older browser, particularly older versions of Internet Explorer, we may not be able to give you a full visual experience.
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
- there's a limit to how far you can magnify the map on our 'contact us' page
- live video streams do not have captions
Feedback and contact information
If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we're not meeting accessibility requirements, contact communicationsteam@swast.nhs.uk
If you need information on this website in a different format like an accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
- Email - communicationsteam@swast.nhs.uk
- Call - 0300 369 0130
If you cannot view the map on our 'contact us' page, call or email us for directions.
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
South Western Ambulance Service 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
The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard and is partially compliant with WCAG 2.2 AA standard.
The site was fully re-built and launched in February 2024 and at the time was tested by our external website developer contractor to ensure accessibility compliance.
In February 2025, it was identified that some improvements were needed to comply with Web Content Accessibility Guides (WCAG) 2.2 levels A and AA; and HTML5 and CSS standards.
All reasonable actions to address identified compliance issues, are being implemented. In 2025 this includes:
- Coding updates by our external website developer provider.
- Reviewing, updating, restructuring or where appropriate removing content from the site.
- Exploring the use of additional accessibility tools / website add-ons.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
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Images on some pages do not always have suitable image descriptions. Users of assistive technologies may not have access to information conveyed in images. (WCAG 1.1.1)
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Semantic links - Lists of related items should be written semantically as a list. (WCAG 2.0 A 1.3.1)
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Content on Hover or Focus (WCAG 1.4.13)
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Ensure text has sufficient contrast - Not sufficient contrast in the side menu at times that are active (WCAG 1.4.3)
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Resize text - The footer is fixed at bottom (WCAG 1.4.4)
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Ensure controls clearly indicate when they are selected (WCAG 2.4.13)
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.
Some links may direct you to forms and guideline documents produced by EU or UK partners. The accessibility of external documents is not within our control.
Captions/subtitles not displaying if playing YouTube videos within the site. Users may need to check their settings or click through to the full YouTube site to see the onscreen words. To turn captions on please click the button on the embedded video player - this is reachable using the tab key.
To request a transcript for any of our videos, please contactCommunicationsTeam@swast.nhs.uk.
Content that's not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
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.
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.
What we're doing to improve accessibility
We are currently converting all our PDF documents to HTML format. During this process, there will still be non-accessible PDF documents across the site.
All PDF documents will be converted to a fully accessible HTML format by 7 July 2025 (two months after this statement was reviewed).
If you come across a non-accessible PDF containing information you need urgently, please contact CommunicationsTeam@swast.nhs.uk to request an accessible version.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 2 April 2025 It was last reviewed on 7 May 2025.
This website was last tested on 2 May 2025 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.
The test was carried out by VerseOne. The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tools by our website team. A further audit of the website was carried out to the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.
You can read the full accessibility test report here