Accessibility statement for joindementiaresearch.nihr.ac.uk

This website is run by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Clinical Research Network and funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

We have made every effort to ensure this website is easily readable using plain English and we are committed to making sure our online services are accessible to all users.

We have involved people living with dementia, their carers and family members, and our charity partners in improving the website's usability.  We have also made improvements recommended by the Digital Accessibility Centre.

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

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 400% 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)

The website has been accredited with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard Accreditation by the Digital Accessibility Centre. There should be no issues affecting users who have accessibility requirements on the main user journeys on the site, including signing up, logging in and reviewing their details and matched studies, except for the items listed in the following section.

How accessible is joindementiaresearch.ac.uk?

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • AddThis Sharing Buttons Plugin fail some tests regarding the mark-up of elements that may affect users of keyboard only and/or assistive technologies.
  • The Twitter Timeline Feed Plugins fail some tests regarding labelling and colour contrast elements that may affect users of keyboard only, assistive technologies and/or low visibility.
  • The 'Non-CRN portfolio study application form' does not have error handling for the planned opening or closing dates. An error message will not be automatically triggered if a submission is incorrect.
  • Our archived News pages on the site have not been fully checked for accessibility and may therefore not be fully accessible.

Feedback and contact information

If you think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, or you would like any of the information on the website in a different format, please contact us by email at comms.jdr@nihr.ac.uk or through the contact us page on our website.  When you contact us, please include a description of the issue and your contact details. We’ll review your request and aim to get back to you within fourteen working days.

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 this website’s accessibility

National Institute for Health and Care Research Clinical Research Network 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 compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

Non accessible content

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

  • We did not fully implement the recommendations given to us by the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) because of technical limitations
  • The Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) raised additional non-accessible content during their latest retest of the website.

Non-accessible content:

  • AddThis Sharing Buttons Plugin fail some tests regarding the mark-up of elements that may affect users of keyboard only and/or assistive technologies.
  • The Twitter Timeline Feed Plugins fail some tests regarding labelling and colour contrast elements that may affect users of keyboard only, assistive technologies and/or low visibility. 
  • The 'Non-CRN portfolio study application form' does not have error handling for the planned opening or closing dates.  An error message may not be triggered if a submission is incorrect.

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

AddThis Sharing Buttons Plugin on the News pages

This plugin allows site users to post JDR news page details to Twitter and other social media sites. Plugin code is written and maintained by a third party company and fails some tests regarding the mark-up of elements that may affect users of keyboard only and/or assistive technologies. The issues affected by this Plugin that are non-compliant with accessibility regulations are listed below:

  • There is a mark-up fail aria-label.  This means we are unable to unnest links on the ‘Become a Join Dementia Research Champion’ page. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 (Focus Order)
  • There is a mark-up fail label.  This means we are unable to Shift and trap user focus to the popup and assign correct hidden and visible attributes on the ‘Become a Join Dementia Research Champion’ page. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value), 2.4.3 (Focus Order), and 1.3.6 (Identify Purpose)

Twitter Timeline Feed Plugins on the News pages

This plugin allows site users to view the latest JDR related Tweets in the form of an embedded Twitter Timeline. Plugin code is written and maintained by a third party company and fails some tests regarding labelling and colour contrast elements that may affect users of keyboard only, assistive technologies and/or low visibility. The issues affected by this Plugin that are non-compliant with accessibility regulations are listed below:

  • There is no video controls aria-label.  This means there is no mechanism to allow moving content in Tweets to be paused, stopped or hidden.  This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.2.2 (Pause, Stop, Hide)
  • There is no video transcript aria-label.  This means there is no mechanism to provide equivalent information for pre-recorded video-only content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.1 (Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded)) and 1.2.8 (Media Alternative (Prerecorded))
  • There is no lightbox aria-label. This means users are unable to shift and trap user focus to the popup and assign correct hidden and visible attributes. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value), 2.4.3 (Focus Order), and 1.3.6 (Identify Purpose)
  • The Plugin links without being labelled by aria label. Many of the links within the Twitter feeds do not have descriptive labels which describe their purpose to users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)), and 2.4.9 (Link Purpose (Link Only))
  • The carousel UI fail aria-label. Components cannot be tabbed into, nor operated via the keyboard, as they do not gain keyboard focus. This means assistive technology users may not be able recognise the functionality of these components in order to present their full purpose. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value), 2.1.1 (Keyboard), and 2.1.3 (Keyboard, No Exception).
  • UI fail aria-label. Visual information required for users to identify user interface components, focus states and graphical objects does not achieve a sufficient colour contrast ratio against adjacent or background colours. Users with limited colour vision or those using limited-colour or monochrome displays may not be able to perceive this information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1 (Use of Color), 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), 1.4.6 (Contrast (Enhanced)), and 1.4.11 (Non-text Contrast).

 We are not able to amend the output of these plugins and will look for ways to resolve these issues in the future.  We have followed DAC advice and clearly labelled the regions of the page to describe the nature if its contents and to allow keyboard users to navigate more easily around the core elements of the page.

The 'Non-CRN portfolio study application form'

This is a Google form which does not have error handling for the planned opening or closing dates.  An error message may not be triggered if a submission is incorrect. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.1 (Error Identification).

In December 2020 followed DAC advice to implement additional information about this field to help users navigate it, as we are unable to provide an error message.

Legacy video content

Our legacy video content does not always include embedded subtitle. We are in the process or reviewing all of our video content and therefore these will be updated as soon as possible.

Disproportionate burden

AddThis Sharing Buttons Plugin fail some tests regarding the mark-up of elements, and the Twitter Timeline Feed Plugins fail some tests regarding labelling and colour contrast elements.  This may affect users of keyboard only, assistive technologies and/or low visibility. We’ve assessed the implications of implementing different technology and we believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will continue to assess the functionality in Twitter and will implement a change to the affected regions if such functionality becomes available.

The 'Non-CRN portfolio study application form' on Google forms does not have error handling for the planned opening or closing dates.  An error message may not be triggered if a submission is incorrect. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.1 (Error Identification). Google forms does not provide the possibility of adding an error message to this field. We’ve assessed the cost of implementing a different form for applications and we believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will continue to assess the functionality in Google forms and will implement a change to this field if such functionality becomes available.

Our archived News pages stretching back to 23 September 2018 on the site are not included in our current accessibility work. This is because reviewing all of this archived material would present a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We know these pages are rarely used by visitors to the website but we will work to amend or remove these pages on the site. 

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

Our archived News pages created on or before 23 September 2018 are not fully accessible and do not fall within the scope of the accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We have a programme of continuous service improvement that involves people living with dementia, their carers and family members, and our charity partners.

We incorporate accessibility testing into any new technical developments on the service. We will also continue to undergo regular accessibility review in order to ensure that our service is as accessible as possible.

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. Please contact us if you encounter any accessibility issues.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was first prepared on 1st February 2019. It was last reviewed on 10th June 2022.

The Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) first reviewed this website in September 2019 and we implemented the improvements they recommended. DAC retested the website on 29th October 2020 and 9th September 2021 and we have implemented all of their recommendations, following which they accredited us with WCAG 2.1 AA certification.

We tested the main user journey users would take in signing up to the service, identifying a research opportunity and finding information about research.This covered all the templates used in the site. You can ask us for a full copy of the DAC reports.

Areas of the site that were not in the scope of the DAC review (nhs.joindementiaresearch.nihr.ac.uk and learn.joindementiaresearch.nihr.ac.uk) have been assessed and improved using a combination of automated testing (WebAIM WAVE tool) and manual checks for adherence to accessibility requirements for content.

We will continue to test the site for accessibility internally and will next have the site reviewed by an external provided by the end of March 2023.