This accessibility statement applies to all websites owned and managed by Health Education England (HEE).

Important: Important

This page is being reviewed against the latest website accessibility guidelines, and will be updated shortly.

This website is run by Health Education England (HEE). 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 300% 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.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible are our websites

Health Education England has more than 120 websites including the main hee.nhs.uk website. These websites vary in purpose, size and content. Some are hosted by us; others are hosted and maintained by external suppliers, and managed and paid for by an individual HEE service, programme or directorate. We expect many of these websites are not fully accessible. Our approach to testing and addressing accessibility issues is outlined in our disproportionate burden statement.

For example:

  • some pages and document attachments are not clearly written
  • some pages are not capable of zooming to 300% without text spilling off the screen
  • some pages are not easily navigable without a mouse
  • some tables do not have row headers
  • some pages have poor colour contrast
  • some heading elements are not consistent
  • some images do not have good alternative text
  • some buttons are not correctly identified
  • some error messages are not clearly associated with form controls
  • many documents are in PDF format and are not accessible
  • some content is embedded on pages, such as maps and videos, and these cannot be easily scaled on screen
  • some data visualisation tools used in our websites currently use inaccessible technologies such as PowerBI and Tableau

As outlined in our disproportionate burden statement we are committed to carrying out full accessibility audits on our main websites. We have commissioned The Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) to carry out WCAG 2.1 AA level technical compliance audits, that will also include extensive testing by users with a wide range of disabilities.

Our audits are scheduled as follows:

https://hee.nhs.uk/ - Audit scheduled October 2020

https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/ - Audit scheduled October 2020

We will update this statement to reflect their findings and our plans for addressing any issues found.

How to request content in an accessible format

If you need information in a different format contact us and tell us:

  • the web address (URL) of the content
  • your name and email address
  • the format you need, for example, audio CD, braille, BSL or large print, accessible PDF

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible. 

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, contact the HEE Communications team at [email protected], who are responsible for dealing with reported accessibility problems.

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 our websites accessibility

Health Education England is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the accessibility regulations.

Our websites are not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

Compliance status

Our websites are not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Disproportionate burden

We’ve assessed the cost of accessibility auditing and fixing any issues found with Health Education England’s websites. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. 

You can read our disproportionate burden statement.

We are building a new National Website Platform onto which we intend to consolidate and integrate all websites. We will assess this new platform for compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. The first phase of this is planned to be launched Summer 2021.

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

PDFs and other documents

We plan to fix the most-viewed documents on HEE’s websites (top 5%), 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. For example, we do not plan to fix rarely viewed documents that are not required for essential services.

Where possible, any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. Where this is not possible, we will endeavor to make the information available in an accessible format.  If you need documents in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille please email [email protected]

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 are doing to improve accessibility

We have a long-term, Government Digital Service (GDS) approved project, currently entering beta phase, designed to specifically address the rationalisation and reduction of the existing legacy web estate and make all of our websites fully compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, as a minimum. This project will create a digital service that aims to replace the multiple website management systems with a single platform for all our websites, including national, regional, local and programmes – like gov.uk or BBC.co.uk. Central to this service will be ensuring accessibility and a fully inclusive user experience.  This service will start to go live in the Summer 2021.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22nd September 2020.

Our approach to accessibility testing is described in the disproportionate burden statement.