Accessibility statement

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NHS Frimley Accessibility Statement

This statement applies to the website www.frimley.icb.nhs.uk. This is run by NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings
  • zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using a keyboard or speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We’ve 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. Webpage: AbilityNet

How accessible this website is

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

  • some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please let us know.

Equally, if you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, get in touch.

You can reach us in the following ways:

  • email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • phone: 01252 335154
  • post: Communications and Engagement Team, NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board, King Edward VIII Hospital, St Leonards Road, Windsor SL4 3DP

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, visit the website: Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

NHS Frimley 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

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

  • Many of the historic PDFs on our website are non-accessible as their titles at upload may be missing or contained acronyms or other language that was not plain English, and many contain tables that cannot be read by assistive technologies like screen readers.
  • NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board has an obligation to publish documents such as board papers, agendas and technical papers aimed at clinicians and other colleagues working across the health and care system. This includes many complex documents which can run to hundreds of pages in length.
  • We carried out an accessibility audit of the website in November 2024 and discovered some of the existing PDF documents do not meet accessibility standards. As part of this process we are implementing new guidelines for staff creating documents for the website to ensure they meet accessibility standards going forward. However, we remain unable to comply with updating all historic versions of these documents.
  • The cost to do this would run into thousands of pounds of staff time which our small communications team could not manage whilst ensuring we meet our core duties of communicating with staff and the public. The historic versions of these documents also receive little to no traffic and downloads.
  • We are also currently not compliant with our Board papers. These regularly contain hundreds of pages including scanned images and large reports that have been sourced from multiple departments and external organisations. They are also compiled and uploaded on a tight schedule only hours before they are legally required to be available to the public.


    The cost of converting these documents would be significant and is not financially justifiable. Instead, we advise all interested parties to email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to talk through any information that might be required as an alternative.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  1. WCAG 2.4.2 Ensure PDFs have a title
    PDF documents should have titles that describe the topic or purpose of the page. Titles help users understand the topic without having to read the entire document. Without a descriptive title a user may need to spend time searching the document to decide whether the content is relevant. When a PDF is displayed in a browser the title will usually be displayed in the top title bar or as the tab name.
    Titles are missing or incorrect in some PDF documents.
    ACTION: We are implementing new guidelines for staff creating documents for the website to ensure they meet accessibility standards going forward
  2. WCAG 3.1.1 Language of a page
    Assistive technologies are more accurate when a document has a specified language. For example, knowing the language means screen readers can accurately convert text to speech with the correct pronunciation and visual browsers can display the correct characters. This allows users to understand content better.
    The language is missing within the settings of some PDF documents.
    ACTION: We are implementing new guidelines for staff creating documents for the website to ensure they meet accessibility standards going forward.
  3. WCAG 1.3.1 Information and relationships
    Content is not tagged. Assistive technologies like screen readers rely on correct markup within documents to understand and show the correct information to a user. Content in documents should be tagged to provide information about structured content such as headings, tables, lists, paragraphs and form fields.
    Some documents have elements that are not correctly tagged.
    ACTION: We are implementing new guidelines for staff creating documents for the website to ensure they meet accessibility standards going forward.

Disproportionate burden

Many of the historic PDFs on our website do not meet the requirements to be considered fully accessible. The resource and financial cost of making our historic PDF documents and Board Papers compliant with all accessibility standards on the website would be a disproportionate burden on our organisation.

For example, the Governing Body Board paper for our November 2024 was 121 pages in length. To adapt and ensure accessibility compliance this would cost approximately £1,500 for an external company to create. As our Board meets in public six times a year, the cost to adapt these papers would be approximately £9,000.

NHS Frimley and the whole Frimley Health and Care Integrated Care System are managing unprecedented service demands with budgets under continual pressure. The content for the website is created in-house within the communications team at the current time, with no dedicated web resource. The annual budget for our website is £15,308. Of this budget, 100% of it is used for hosting and minimal technical support.

Many of our documents and Board papers receive little to no traffic or downloads. The November Governing Body Board paper (as of 15 November) had only 3 uploads. Under current financial constraints, payment to an external agency to make board papers accessible is not justifiable over other essential service requirements. All of our users will benefit from us making our website and online information accessible, so focusing our limited resource on maintaining the most-used accessible content on our website, educating staff and ensuring that new documents are accessible where they are required for essential services or used by people with disabilities is our priority in the interim period.

To support this we are implementing new guidelines for staff creating documents for the website to ensure they meet accessibility standards going forward. We will continue to work with teams to find viable solutions for this issue.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

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. Further information about the accessibility of our PDFs is available under the 'non-compliance' and 'disproportionate burden' headings.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 15th November 2024. It was last reviewed in November 2024.

This website was last tested on 11th November 2024 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

The test was carried out by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit. The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tools by our website team. A further audit of the website was carried out to the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.