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Blogs on GOV.UK are run by the Government Digital Service (GDS), part of the Cabinet Office. The blogs platform is provided by GDS on behalf of government departments. 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The blogs platform is provided by GDS on behalf of government departments. The departments (for example the </span><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care"><span style="font-weight: 400">Department of Health and Social Care</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">) publish the content on the blogs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">change colours, contrast levels and fonts</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">navigate most of the website using just a keyboard</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">navigate most of the website using speech recognition software</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">AbilityNet</span><span style="font-weight: 400"> has <a href="https://mcmw.abilitynet.org.uk/"><span style="font-weight: 400">advice on making your device easier to use</span></a> if you have a disability.</span></p> <h2><b>How accessible this website is</b></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">a number of images do not have appropriate alt text</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">the YouTube video player has accessibility issues with contrast and tooltips</span></li> <li>audio players, such as Podbean, may be keyboard accessible, and partially screen reader accessible, but there can be some issues with the labelling of controls for screen reader users, including that the download and share buttons are not labelled</li> </ul> <h2><b>What to do if you cannot access parts of this website</b></h2> <h3><strong>Get content in other formats</strong></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">You can get GOV.UK pages and documents in different formats, including:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">audio CD</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">braille</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">British Sign Language (BSL)</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">large print</span></li> </ul> <ol> <li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://www.gov.uk/contact/govuk"><span style="font-weight: 400">Contact GOV.UK</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Add the web address (URL) of the page the content’s on.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Describe the format you need, for example audio CD, braille, BSL or large print.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Enter your name and email address.</span></li> </ol> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">We’ll aim to reply within 2 working days.</span></p> <h2><b>Reporting accessibility problems with this website</b></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact us by doing the following:</span></p> <ol> <li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://www.gov.uk/contact/govuk"><span style="font-weight: 400">Contact GOV.UK</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Add the web address (URL) of the page the content’s on or choose the whole site.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Let us know your issue.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Enter your name and email address if you want a response, or leave this blank if you want to remain anonymous.</span></li> </ol> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">If you request a response, we'll aim to reply within 2 working days.</span></p> <h2><b>Enforcement procedure</b></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">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, </span><a href="https://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400">contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">.</span></p> <h2><b>Technical information about this website’s accessibility </b></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">GDS is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">This website is partially compliant with the </span><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/"><span style="font-weight: 400">Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.</span></p> <h2><b>Non-accessible content</b></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.</span></p> <h3><b>Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations</b></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">The video controls do not have enough contrast. </span><span style="font-weight: 400">This fails WCAG 2.1 AA success criterion 1.4.11 (non-text contrast). This is an issue with the YouTube video player and not within the control of GDS. We will continue to look for a more compliant player.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Some video controls have a tooltip which does not stay open when moving the cursor to them. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA success criterion 1.4.13 (content on hover or focus). </span><span style="font-weight: 400">This is an issue with the YouTube video player and not within the control of GDS. We will continue to look for a more compliant player.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">The page titles do not specifically refer to blogs. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA success criterion 2.4.2 (page titles). We are working on fixing this issue.</span></p> <h2><b>Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations</b></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Some blogs have uploaded files in PDF or Word formats. Older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards. For example, they may not be structured to be accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">We plan to either remove these or replace them with accessible HTML pages in due course.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">The accessibility regulations </span><a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/952/regulation/4/made"><span style="font-weight: 400">do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> if they’re not essential to providing our services.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.</span></p> <p>The accessibility regulations <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/952/regulation/4/made">do not apply to pre-recorded time-based media published before 23rd September 2020</a> - this includes videos on the page.</p> <h2><b>How we tested this website</b></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">This website was last tested in August 2019. The test was carried out by accessibility staff in GDS.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">We used this approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">we looked at any blogs published since September 2018</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">We tested the following blogs:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://faststream.blog.gov.uk/"><span style="font-weight: 400">Civil Service Fast Stream</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://healthtech.blog.gov.uk/"><span style="font-weight: 400">Technology in the NHS</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://forestrycommission.blog.gov.uk/"><span style="font-weight: 400">Forestry Commission</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://brexitfacts.blog.gov.uk/"><span style="font-weight: 400">Brexit Facts</span></a></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">As all blogs are based on the same platform and template, they have not been tested individually but some samples have been selected from all of them: 1 blog homepage, 3 blog posts with various degrees of complexities (videos, graphs, comments), 1 search results page and 1 subscribe page with a form.</span></p> <ol> <li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://faststream.blog.gov.uk/"><span style="font-weight: 400">Blog homepage: Civil Service Fast Stream</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://healthtech.blog.gov.uk/2019/07/25/join-the-digital-transformation-team-at-nhsx/"><span style="font-weight: 400">Blog post: Join the digital transformation team at NHSX</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://healthtech.blog.gov.uk/2019/02/20/ethics-is-our-competitive-advantage-how-the-nhs-can-lead-the-world-in-ai-based-healthtech/"><span style="font-weight: 400">Blog post: Ethics is our competitive advantage…</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://forestrycommission.blog.gov.uk/2019/06/26/why-you-should-apply-for-the-hs2-woodland-fund-before-5-july-2019/"><span style="font-weight: 400">Blog post: Why you should apply for the HS2 Woodland Fund…</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://forestrycommission.blog.gov.uk/?s=tree"><span style="font-weight: 400">Search results: tree</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://brexitfacts.blog.gov.uk/subscribe/"><span style="font-weight: 400">Subscribe</span></a></li> </ol> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">This statement was prepared on 10th September 2019. It was last updated on 6 April 2022.</span></p> </article> </div> </main> </div> <footer class="govuk-footer js-footer" role="contentinfo"> <div class="govuk-width-container"> <div class="govuk-footer__meta"> <div class="govuk-footer__meta-item govuk-footer__meta-item--grow"> <h2 class="govuk-visually-hidden">Useful links</h2> <ul id="menu-footer" class="govuk-footer__inline-list"> <li class="govuk-footer__inline-list-item menu-all-government-blogs"><a class="govuk-footer__link" href="https://www.blog.gov.uk">All GOV.UK blogs</a></li> <li class="govuk-footer__inline-list-item menu-all-government-blog-posts"><a class="govuk-footer__link" href="https://www.blog.gov.uk/all-posts/">All GOV.UK blog posts</a></li> <li class="govuk-footer__inline-list-item menu-gov-uk"><a class="govuk-footer__link" href="https://www.gov.uk">GOV.UK</a></li> <li class="govuk-footer__inline-list-item menu-all-departments"><a class="govuk-footer__link" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations">All departments</a></li> <li class="govuk-footer__inline-list-item menu-a11y"><a class="govuk-footer__link" href="https://www.blog.gov.uk/accessibility-statement/">Accessibility statement</a></li> <li class="govuk-footer__inline-list-item menu-cookies"><a class="govuk-footer__link" href="https://www.blog.gov.uk/cookies">Cookies</a></li> </ul> <svg aria-hidden="true" focusable="false" class="govuk-footer__licence-logo" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewbox="0 0 483.2 195.7" height="17" width="41"> <path fill="currentColor" d="M421.5 142.8V.1l-50.7 32.3v161.1h112.4v-50.7zm-122.3-9.6A47.12 47.12 0 0 1 221 97.8c0-26 21.1-47.1 47.1-47.1 16.7 0 31.4 8.7 39.7 21.8l42.7-27.2A97.63 97.63 0 0 0 268.1 0c-36.5 0-68.3 20.1-85.1 49.7A98 98 0 0 0 97.8 0C43.9 0 0 43.9 0 97.8s43.9 97.8 97.8 97.8c36.5 0 68.3-20.1 85.1-49.7a97.76 97.76 0 0 0 149.6 25.4l19.4 22.2h3v-87.8h-80l24.3 27.5zM97.8 145c-26 0-47.1-21.1-47.1-47.1s21.1-47.1 47.1-47.1 47.2 21 47.2 47S123.8 145 97.8 145" /> </svg> <span class="govuk-footer__licence-description"> <span class="govuk-footer__licence-description">All content is available under the <a class="govuk-footer__link" href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/" rel="license">Open Government Licence v3.0</a>, except where otherwise stated</span> </span> </div> <div class="govuk-footer__meta-item"> <a class="govuk-footer__link govuk-footer__copyright-logo" href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/re-using-public-sector-information/uk-government-licensing-framework/crown-copyright/">© Crown copyright</a> </div> </div> </div> </footer> <div id="global-app-error" class="app-error hidden"></div> <script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ var relevanssi_rt_regex = /(&|\?)_(rt|rt_nonce)=(\w+)/g var newUrl = window.location.search.replace(relevanssi_rt_regex, '') history.replaceState(null, null, window.location.pathname + newUrl + window.location.hash) /* ]]> */ </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/plugins/page-links-to/dist/new-tab.js?ver=3.3.7" id="page-links-to-js"></script> </body> </html>