This accessibility statement applies to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s website.
This website is run by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. We want this website to be as accessible and inclusive as possible. For example, that means you should be able to:
We have 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.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact bcu.digital@wales.nhs.uk in the first instance and we will pass your request onto the relevant team.
We will consider your request and get back to you in no more than 10 working days.
We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact bcu.digital@wales.nhs.uk.
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 are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service.
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board is committed to providing access to and participation in its services for patients and service users with sensory loss on the same basis as other service users.
We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment via Relay UK.
The Health Board provides BSL and other language services through our contract with Welsh Interpretation Services (WITs). We work hard to ensure that our offices and treatment areas have audio induction loops, if you required a BSL interpreter, please contact the department or ward prior to your visit so that this can be arranged for you. If you visit is unplanned or in an emergency situation our staff can arrange either a face to face or on-line BSL interpreter.
The Health Board provides two key sources of additional support;
Accessible Health Care Scheme is provided in in collaboration with the Centre of Sign Sight Sound (COSS), who can provide help in making and changing appointments, providing advice and guidance and support to enable you to communicate effectively with the Health Board, GPs and other health services. They can also provide you with an Accessible Health Communication Card which enables you to easily identify your communication needs to health care professionals, these can also be obtained from our Audiology Department(s). To find out more about how the Accessible Health Care Scheme, please contact the Centre of Sign Sight Sound (COSS) by telephone 01492 530013 or by email: info@signsightsound.org.uk.
Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) operates across all areas of the Health Board and provides patients and service users with impartial advice and support, help with making contact with our staff and departments and provides information on other organisations and which can provide information or advice, as well as listening and learning from your feedback.
You can contact the PALS service Mon-Friday (09:00-17:00) by telephone 03000 851234 or e-mail BCU.PALS@wales.nhs.uk.
For more information about the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team, please visit their webpage or contact BCU.Equality@wales.nhs.uk.
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No.2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. The ‘non-compliances and exemptions’ are listed below.
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons
Whilst we will prioritise patient information to ensure it is digitally accessible wherever possible, we know there are some sections of our website of a corporate nature, which are not currently accessible and have been produced since September 2018.
For these sections, we will identify where we know documents are non-compliant and provide contact details wherever possible. As documentation is renewed in the future, we will ensure digital accessibility is considered Currently, these sections are listed as below: (and subject to change).
Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we occasionally have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, patient information leaflets and forms published as Word documents. By April 2023, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages or online forms. Content checks are now carried out before Word documents or PDFs can be added to the website. New pages and content that we upload to the website in a HTML format will meet accessibility standards.
The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services. We do not plan to fix any PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018.
We consider it a disproportionate burden to fix Board and Committee Papers, Health Board policies and procedure documentation or statutory documentation such as Annual Reports created and uploaded between the 23rd of September to the 23rd of December 2020. This is due to the volume of content and text within numerous documents that would need to be fixed. A contact email address will be provided on every relevant webpage for those that require this information in an accessible format. We are in the process of planning to upload documents of this nature in an accessible format by the first quarter of 2020/2021 when new software is in place.
We occasionally publish PDFs which contain ‘transcripts//scanned manuscripts or handwritten notes’ for example in FOI requests - these are outside of scope and will not be fixed.
We do not plan to add captions to live audio or video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. However, we will always provide the option to switch on subtitles (embedding videos from Youtube plug-in) of pre-recorded videos produced.
We currently do not have an accessibility roadmap, which shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website, however we plan to have a roadmap by April 2023.
As a small Digital Communications Team, we aim to audit existing webpages on the website to remove or update content (images, documents, videos) that does not comply with accessibility by September 2023.
We plan to review the format of all webpages and content by September 2023 to ensure that the content on all webpages where possible is accessible
This statement was updated on 08 November 2022. It will be reviewed and updated in April 2023.