Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to the King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust website (www.kch.nhs.uk).

This website is run by King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

• zoom in up to 200% 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

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:

• many documents throughout the site are in less accessible formats, for example, PDF
• heading structures are not correct on some webpages. This mainly affects the Services and Careers sections
• jump links on the Services A to Z landing page aren’t coded to focus correctly with screen readers.
• some image links are empty

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

• email: [email protected]
• call: 020 3299 4826

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

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 let us know by emailing: [email protected]

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).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

See our Accessible Information page for full details of how we can support you to access and understand the information we give you when using our services.

If you need an interpreter or translation, see our Interpreting page.

Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

King’s College Hospital 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

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

1. Many documents are in less accessible formats, for example, PDF. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text content). We are currently investigating this and will have a plan to address it by January 2024.
2. Heading structures are not correct on some pages – mainly in the Services and Careers sections. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and relationships). We plan to fix this by January 2024.
3. Jump links on the Services A to Z landing page aren’t coded to focus correctly with screen readers. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, role, value). We plan to fix this by September 2023.
4. Some image links are empty. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link purpose (in context)). We plan to fix this by November 2023.

We also use some third party platforms that are not fully accessible. We are working with suppliers to address this and will publish further details by September 2023.

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.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

In April 2023, we moved our existing website content onto a new content management system. This has improved our ability to provide an accessible website.

In May 2023 we commissioned an accessibility audit of the website, which we have used to make further improvements. Issues raised in the report that we are still investigating are listed below. We have also provided our roadmap of future accessibility improvements.

PDFs and other documents

The audit identified a significant number of documents that do not comply with the accessibility regulations.

As part of our work to improve the accessibility of this website, we are reviewing our policy on PDFs and other documents, and other methods of delivering information, with a view to making them as accessible as possible.

Third party content and platforms

The audit raised some features of third party platforms and content used on this website that are not fully accessible. We have started liaising with suppliers to see what improvements can be made.

If any specific issues cannot be fixed, we will assess their impact and other ways to potentially address the problem.

Third party technologies are used for our:

• cookie information
• current vacancy listings
• news listings
• document lists

Future website redevelopment

We are in the early stages of planning a full-scale website redevelopment. This will involve incorporating our two main websites into one (www.kch.nhs.uk and pruh.kch.nhs.uk) and an in-depth review of our content. Accessibility will be embedded into the procurement process for this project.

Roadmap

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 18 April 2023. It was last reviewed on 20 July 2023.

This website was last tested in May 2023, by Accessibility Services. A sample of 16 pages were manually tested that included all of the features and page types on the website. Automated testing was also completed on a wider range of pages.