Healthya is committed to making its public website and web applications as accessible and usable as possible for everyone, including people with disabilities and those using assistive technologies. Healthya is designed with the key principles of accessibility, clinical safety, information governance, data protection and information security in mind.
How you can use this website
Healthya is designed so that you should be able to:
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts using your browser or device settings
- zoom in up to at least 400% without text or functionality being cut off
- navigate most of the website using a keyboard or speech recognition software
- use most of the website with a screen reader
- move around pages in a consistent, predictable way
Text is written in clear, plain language wherever possible, and layouts are designed to minimise cognitive load.
If you find any part of the website difficult to use, please contact us using the details in the “Feedback and contact information” section below.
Compliance status
Healthya aims to meet level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 for its public website and web applications.
Our web content and user journeys are developed and tested against the WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria, under the four principles of being perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. Where possible, we also seek to meet AAA success criteria that significantly improve user experience.
Where web standards are not directly applicable, for example in relation to our native mobile applications, we use guidance from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on mobile accessibility mapping to apply WCAG principles and success criteria to native apps. This guidance is informative and does not itself set additional legal requirements.
Meeting NHS and public sector expectations
Healthya supports NHS and wider public sector accessibility expectations by:
- designing and testing to WCAG 2.2 AA standard, which is NHS England policy for websites and digital services
- following the NHS Service Standard principles related to accessibility, inclusive research, and testing with users who have access needs
- supporting organisations to evidence compliance with the “Usability and accessibility” domain of the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC) where Healthya is used as part of NHS clinical or operational services
- supporting implementation of the Accessible Information Standard by enabling recording, flagging and responding to people’s communication and information needs within our products, where this is part of the commissioned service design
Who we design for
Healthya is designed to be accessible to users with:
- vision impairments (including blindness, partial sight and colour‑vision deficiency), by providing sufficient colour contrast, scalable text, support for high‑contrast modes, meaningful alternative text and compatibility with screen magnifiers and screen readers
- hearing impairments (including people who are deaf or hard of hearing), by ensuring that essential audio information is also available visually and that multimedia is supported with text alternatives where provided
- mobility or dexterity impairments, by enabling full keyboard navigation, logical focus order, adequate touch target sizes and support for assistive input devices
- cognitive, learning or neurodivergent conditions (such as dyslexia, autism and learning disabilities), by using clear headings and labels, consistent navigation, simple language where possible and clear error messages and instructions
What we are doing to improve accessibility
Accessibility is built into the Healthya product lifecycle from initial design through to development, testing and ongoing support. We:
- regularly audit our public website and web applications for accessibility and maintain a roadmap of improvements
- integrate accessibility checks into our quality assurance processes, including automated tools and manual testing with assistive technologies
- include people with disabilities and diverse access needs in our user research and design personas, where appropriate for the commissioned services
- treat accessibility as a shared responsibility across design, engineering, clinical safety, information governance and product teams
- provide accessibility and inclusive design training for staff in relevant roles and make training available to all staff on request
- continually review new browser, device and assistive technology features and use them where appropriate to improve user experience
Where issues are identified, they are logged, risk‑assessed and prioritised for remediation through our standard change and release processes.
Content and documents
Our aim is to publish content in accessible HTML wherever possible. Where other formats are used (for example, PDFs or Office documents), we work to ensure these are created and published in line with accessibility best practice.
Where legacy or externally supplied documents cannot easily be made fully accessible, we will:
- clearly explain where such content may not meet accessibility standards
- provide alternative formats or equivalent information on request, wherever reasonably possible