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Accessibility statement for Learning Support Fund Public (LSF)

This accessibility statement applies to Learning Support Fund.

This website is run by the NHS Business Services Authority. 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
  • 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 version of NVDA)

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.

How accessible this website is

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

  • users that are signed in are not warned that they will be timed out after a period of inactivity
  • some error summary links do not place focus on the correct field when clicked. Some error text is inaccurate in their description
  • users of assistive technology may struggle to navigate some page elements due to non-unique IDs and issues with ARIA attributes
  • some page titles are duplicated or do not describe the content as accurately as it should
  • some fields have hard limits on the character length, some links open in a new browser tab or open a file type. Screen reader users are not informed of these
  • users of assistive technology are not informed about the status or status change of their supplied evidence
  • on pages where the user is presented with checkboxes that have a ‘Other’ option the user is not informed that clicking the ‘Other’ checkbox will untick any previous selections and vice versa
  • voice recognition users cannot interact directly with summary accordion links and need to use the mouse grid to interact with them
  • screen readers will sometimes read out change links with visually hidden text as one continuous word (e.g., “Updateenabled” rather than “Update enabled”)
  • on some pages the user is presented with non-interactive elements get assigned a number when saying "Click element type". This could lead the user to believe they can interact with them

How to request content in an accessible format

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, you can contact us by:

Email: accessibility@nhsbsa.nhs.uk

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

This inbox is only for accessibility queries. This inbox is not for technical queries or IT problems. If you have a query that is not about accessibility, go to the ‘Contact us’ section of this page.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

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, you can contact us by:

Email: accessibility@nhsbsa.nhs.uk

This inbox is only for accessibility queries. This inbox is not for technical queries or IT problems. If you have a query that is not about accessibility, go to the ‘Contact us’ section of this page.

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).

Contact us

For all queries not accessibility related, you can contact us by:

Email: lsfcomplaints@nhsbsa.nhs.uk

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The NHS Business Services Authority 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 partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

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

Users that are signed in are not warned that they will be timed out after a period of inactivity. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.2.6 (Timeouts) and 4.1.3 (Status Messages).

Some error summary links do not place focus on the correct field when clicked. Some error text is inaccurate in their description. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.1 (Error Identification) and 3.2.3 (Consistent Navigation).

Users of assistive technology may struggle to navigate some page elements due to non-unique IDs and issues with ARIA attributes. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.2.3 (Consistent Navigation) and 3.2.4 (Consistent Identification).

Some page titles are duplicated or do not describe the content as accurately as it should. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 (Page Titled).

Some fields have hard limits on the character length, some links open in a new browser tab or open a file type. Screen reader users are not informed of these. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.3 (Status Messages).

Users of assistive technology are not informed about the status or status change of their supplied evidence. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.3 (Status Messages).

On pages where the user is presented with checkboxes that have a ‘Other’ option the user is not informed that clicking the ‘Other’ checkbox will untick any previous selections and vice versa. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.2.2 (On Input).

Voice recognition users cannot interact directly with summary accordion links and need to use the mouse grid to interact with them. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).

Screen readers will sometimes read out change links with visually hidden text as one continuous word (e.g., “Updateenabled” rather than “Update enabled”). This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)).

On some pages the user is presented with non-interactive elements get assigned a number when saying "Click element type". This could lead the user to believe they can interact with them. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.2.4 (Consistent identification).

We plan to fix all these issues. When we publish new content we’ll make sure it meets accessibility standards.

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

Due to an issue with Dragon and some older versions of this assistive technology, users will have difficulties interacting with certain fields. We advise Dragon users to use the mouse grid feature to interact with these features.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We’re committed to making sure this website is compliant to WCAG 2.1 ‘AA’ standard.

Every new released website will be designed, built and tested to meet ‘AA’ standards by default.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 18 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 18 August 2023.

This website was last tested on 28 July 2023. The test was carried out by the NHSBSA test and development teams. 

We tested all of the website screens to meet ‘AA’ WCAG 2.1 standards, using manual and automated tests.

We run each webpage through automated Wave, Lighthouse and Axe accessibility tools then manually test with screen readers (NVDA or VoiceOver) and standards checklists.

We run representative user journey tests through speech recognition software (Dragon or Voice Control).

These checklists contain standards that have been compiled using WCAG, the NHS service manual and the Government Digital Service (GDS) guidance.