Accessibility statement

Accessibility Statement

Mid and South Essex 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.

This accessibility statement applies to https://www.mse.nhs.uk

Compliance status

Our website was designed to meet W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2, Level AA. This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1  AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content non compliance with regulations

This section covers issues that we may need to fix and are working to do so.

Insufficient alt text

Some images may contain text which cannot be read by assistive technology, such as screen readers.

Any relevant text is included in the images alt-text, which is visible to assistive technology.

Branded text such as logos, slogans or other marketing messages, may not be included in the alt-text if they are not relevant to what the image is conveying.

Images that do not contain sufficiently descriptive alt-text are not compliant with WCAG guideline 1.1.1 , and WCAG guideline 1.3.3 .

We correct insufficient alt-text over time as we review each page.

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have referral forms published as Word documents. Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.

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.

Disproportionate Burden

Not applicable - we have not claimed a disproportionate burden for the purposes of this regulation.

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 referral forms published as Word documents. Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software. 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. 

We use YouTube and Vimeo to embed videos onto our webpages. We are not responsible for the accessibility of the YouTube or Vimeo platforms.

Third party content

Our website contains third-party content. 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-MSE websites
  • content/functionality on our website
  • content hosted on other websites, such as social media sites.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 11 August 2023 following an assessment by Government Digital Services and a subsequent full accessibility audit and correctional work. The test was carried out by VerseOne Group on 18 July 2023 and all published web pages in our site were assessed..

Feedback and contact information

Please contact us if you have any accessibility query including:

  • if you are experiencing issues with accessing information or using the website
  • if you find an accessibility problem not listed on this statement
  • if you have positive feedback on the accessibility considerations made.

When you contact us there is a process in place that will acknowledge your contact, tell you who is dealing with it and give you a timescale by which you can expect a reply.

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) .