North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC) and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) have both been recognised for providing excellent accessibility on their public websites.
NCIC has been ranked as the top NHS Trust and UHMBT as the fourth out of 214 NHS organisations in Silktide Index’s January 2021 report.
NHS Trusts have a duty to make their websites as accessible as possible for those using them. For example, that means people accessing the websites 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)
- Website text is simple as possible to understand.
Michael Smillie, Director of Executive Director of Finance & Digital at NCIC, said: “I am delighted that the Trust has been ranked as the best in England for our website accessibility. It’s also brilliant news that a fellow Cumbrian Trust has also been ranked highly.
“Since we launched the website at the end of 2019 we have been working hard to ensure the accessibility for people who use our site is the best it can be. We are constantly reviewing our webpages and following accessibility guidance which is clearly working well with being recognised by the Silktide Index.”
Phil Woodford, Director of Corporate Affairs, UHMBT, said: “It’s great news that UHMBT is in the top five trusts in England for ease of website accessibility. We’re also immensely pleased that one of our neighbouring trusts in Cumbria is ranked top in the country for accessibility and we wish to congratulate them on their success.
“Our new website was launched in 2020 and one of our main aims was to make the site as accessible and user-friendly as possible for everyone. All new developments on our website are undertaken in line with national accessibility guidance. We are delighted that the Silktide Index has recognised our work on this and will continue to enhance our site for the accessibility of all.”
Both Trust websites offer an array of information, including information on NHS services, details on consultants, visiting a Trust site, becoming a Trust member and much more.
NCIC can be accessed on this link: https://www.ncic.nhs.uk/
UHMBT can be accessed on this link: https://www.uhmb.nhs.uk/
Silktide Index’s an independent web intelligence platform that gathers samples of webpages from websites and then tests those pages for key accessibility criteria.
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Notes for Editors:
Information on Silktide Index can be found at: https://index.silktide.com/uk-nhs-trusts/leaderboard