Accessibility Statement

This website is run by the NIHR. We want as many people as possible to be able to use our website, and we have designed it to be accessible.

How you can use this website

On this website, you should be able to:

change colours, contrast levels, and fonts
zoom in up to 500% with text staying visible on the screen, and most images scaling without resolution loss
navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
read most of the website using a screen reader, including the latest versions of JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver
read most of the website on devices without a screen, like a braille computer
use the website, though not the search, even if Javascript is switched off

We've made the website text as simple as possible to understand, using plain English wherever possible. Some of our content is technical, and contains scientific terms and language. In some instances we have not been able to simplify the wording without changing the meaning of the text.

If you have a problem accessing any documents then AbilityNet has advice to help you make your device easier to use.

How accessible this website is

We have made this website as accessible as possible and we run fortnightly audits to identify any new problems.

Accessible documents:

All text in documents in the document library

We know that some parts of the website aren't fully accessible:

we have a number of documents in PDF and other formats not designed for accessibility. We have published a full list of these documents, including the accessibility options available for each one.
some content is embedded in our website, such as videos, and you cannot easily scale these on screen (but you can open a full screen version)
some content embedded in our HTML documents is not fully accessible.

How to get information in an accessible format

If you have problems accessing information on this website, or would like any of our work in a more accessible format please email us details of your request to enquiries@nihr.ac.uk. We will consider your request, and aim to respond within 5 working days

Reporting accessibility problems

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of the website.

If you find any problems which aren't listed on this page, or think that we're not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, then please email enquiries@nihr.ac.uk with the details to let us know and help us improve.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing 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

The NIHR is committed to making websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Issues with technology

The vast majority of our website works correctly on any web technology.

For security reasons, we only support TLS 1.2 and higher security protocols, and this means that some older browsers will not show the site.

How our site looks and work is based on HTML5, and we test for and support the following browsers:

Google Chrome (versions in support)
Mozilla Firefox (versions in support)
Microsoft Edge (versions in support)
Apple Safari (versions in support)

We also test in the Lynx browser to ensure that the site renders correctly for non-screen users.

Internet Explorer is no longer supported by Microsoft, and while the site may work in more recent versions of IE, we do not recommend its use.

You may experience unexpected behaviour in other browsers, although we use fully validated code which should work on any other browser.

Issues with links

We are aware of the following issues within the links on our site:

Many older PDF files contain broken links which do not resolve - we do not intend to resolve these as it is a disproportionate burden.
Some links on the site are not currently formatted in a compliant manner and we aim to fix these as soon as possible.

We scan the site weekly for broken links, and look to fix them as soon as they are identified.

Issues with PDFs and other documents

Our site favours the HTML format for documents.

PDFs are not able to comply with the requirements of the web accessibility standard, and we do not generally upload new PDFs. Where we do create new PDFs, we use the PDF/UA standard which is more accessible.

Issues with images and video

We strive to make all of our content accessible. We are aware of the following issues with images and video on our site:

Video content uses automated closed captioning and transcripting, and this is often inaccurate. We review these captions and ensure their accuracy manually.
There are some images with accessibility problems and we are working on improving their accessibility.

Issues with menus and buttons

We are aware of the following issues interacting with out site:

Our main navigation menu and our buttons are not always fully accessible. Our developers are fixing these as a matter of priority.

How we test this website

This website undergoes automated testing against the W3C WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 on a fortnightly basis. We scan our web pages, and test against all criteria in the guidelines which are possible to automate.

The weekly report is reviewed by the website development team, with any actions taken and prioritised into our future work. We aim to fix all high priority issues within two weeks of them being identified.

In addition, we conduct internal testing against known accessibility issues which are not able to be found through automated testing, on a sampled basis.

What we are doing to improve

We are actively looking to improve the accessibility on our website. The improvements below have been identified on our current work schedule.

Accessibility improvement roadmap
Target date	Item of work	Type of work	Status
End March 2020	Finish converting all possible non-accessible documents to HTML format	Content	Ongoing
End March 2020	Ensure all images used on the site have appropriate metadata	Content	Ongoing
April 2020	Complete accessibility code review, and make the menu, buttons and other site architecture more accessible.	Developer	Ongoing

Non-Accessible Document Log

Some documents on our site are not accessible. These are listed below, along with the reason. We are working hard to ensure that we convert as many of these as we can to online forms or HTML format, providing the remainder in the most accessible format possible.

Document Title	Action
Programme Grants for Applied Research Application Form to join assessment committees	To be made accessible early 2020
THE PUBLIC AS OUR PARTNERS: NIHR CENTRAL COMMISSIONING FACILITY	To be made accessible early 2020
CCF Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Plan 2019/20	To be made accessible early 2020
The Public As Our Partners NIHR Central Commissioning Facility 2018/19 Highlights Report	To be made accessible early 2020
Going the extra mile: Improving the nation’s health and wellbeing through public involvement in research	Not accessible due to disproportionate burden
2018-2019 Quarter 1:Clinical Trials where the Date Site Selected occurred in the last 12 months to 30/06/2018	Developing table functionality to convert to HTML document in 2020
2018-2019 Quarter 2: Clinical Trials where the Date Site Selected occurred in the last 12 months to 30/09/2018	Developing table functionality to convert to HTML document in 2020
2018-2019 Quarter 3: Clinical Trials where the Date Site Selected occurred in the last 12 months to 31/12/2018	Developing table functionality to convert to HTML document in 2020
Q4 18-19 Comparable Performance	Developing table functionality to convert to HTML document in 2020
NIHR Annual Report 2016/17	Not accessible due to disproportionate burden
NIHR Annual Report 2015/16	Not accessible due to disproportionate burden
NIHR Annual Report 2017/18	Not accessible due to disproportionate burden
Individual research activity for GP practices	Accessible version on request. Please contact crncc.comms@nihr.ac.uk
Decision form - Mechanisms of action of health interventions	Being converted to accessible web form in 2020
Global HPSR DEVELOPMENT AWARDS APPLICATION PROJECT SUMMARY	To be made accessible early 2020
Stage 1 application form (NETSCC)	To be made accessible early 2020
Stage 2 application form (NETSCC)	To be made accessible early 2020
Word support EOL form for HSDR Emergency Response Teams	To be made accessible early 2020
Stage 1 application form (CCF)	To be made accessible early 2020
Stage 2 application form (CCF)	To be made accessible early 2020
i4i Connect Expression of Interest	To be made accessible early 2020
i4i STAGE 1 STANDARD APPLICATION FORM	To be made accessible early 2020
i4i STAGE 2 STANDARD APPLICATION FORM	To be made accessible early 2020
PDG STANDARD APPLICATION FORM	To be made accessible early 2020
Emergency Response and Preparedness Call PDG Expression of Interest	To be made accessible early 2020
PGfAR STAGE 2 STANDARD APPLICATION FORM	To be made accessible early 2020
PGfAR STAGE 1 STANDARD APPLICATION FORM	To be made accessible early 2020
Emergency Response and Preparedness Call PGfAR Expression of Interest	To be made accessible early 2020
Word support EoI form for PHR Emergency Response Teams	To be made accessible early 2020
PRP R24 SAF Stage 2 application form	To be made accessible early 2020
PRP R25 SAF Stage 1 application form IA	To be made accessible early 2020
PRP R25 SAF Stage 1 application form	To be made accessible early 2020
RfPB Competition 37 stage 2 template SAF	To be made accessible early 2020
RfPB Competition 38 stage 2 template SAF	To be made accessible early 2020
RfPB Competition 39 stage 1 template SAF	To be made accessible early 2020
RfPB Competition 40 template SAF	To be made accessible early 2020
Emergency Response and Preparedness Call RfPB Expression of Interest	To be made accessible early 2020
Senior investigator competition 13 template application form	To be made accessible early 2020
Senior investigator letter of support template	To be made accessible early 2020
Incentive Scheme 2019 Application form.docx	To be made accessible early 2020
NIHR Cochrane Gold Open Access Scheme application form	To be made accessible early 2020
GHR ODA Research contract HPSR development award	Format is a contractual requirement
The British Society for Haematology and NIHR Clinical Research Network Award scheme to recognise NHS consultants and trainees	Accessible version on request. Please contact ian.nickson@nihr.ac.uk
Consultant Application form edited	Accessible version on request. Please contact RCRNIHRaward@nihr.ac.uk
CREST award 2019 Nomination Form	Accessible version on request. Please contact crest-award@nihr.ac.uk
PHE awards form	Accessible version on request. Please contact PHENIHRresearchawards@nihr.ac.uk
pier prize application form	Accessible version on request. Please contact research@rcpch.ac.uk
Trainee Application form edited	Accessible version on request. Please contact RCRNIHRaward@nihr.ac.uk
CRN Generic Template for Contract amendment	To be made accessible early 2020
FINAL Suggested financial arrangements appendix text APR17	To be made accessible early 2020
Primary Care ICT V1 MASTER March 2019	To be made accessible early 2020
Secondary Care ICT MASTER V1 March 2019	To be made accessible early 2020
CRO mCIA England 2014	To be made accessible early 2020
Clinical Research Organisation Model Clinical Trial Agreement (CRO-mCTA)	To be made accessible early 2020
First Global and European patients PUBLIC	To be made accessible early 2020
mCIA England 2014	To be made accessible early 2020
mCTA UK February 2018	To be made accessible early 2020
mICRA template	To be made accessible early 2020
Primary Care mCTA England 2013	To be made accessible early 2020
Impact and Value of the NIHR Clinical Research Network	Partially accessible PDF. Not fully accessible due to disproportionate burden
Impact and Value of the NIHR Clinical Research Network (infographic)	Plain text version available as separate document
CCF RMS user guidance	Accessible version on request. Please contact ccfcomms@nihr.ac.uk
Public Review Form template	Accessible version on request. Please contact ccfcomms@nihr.ac.uk
HEI Personal Award Merge - FINALv18 v1-19	To be made accessible early 2020
NHS Personal Award Merge - FINALv19 v1-19	To be made accessible early 2020
NIHR Research Training Application Form Stage 1 & 2 Application Form	To be made accessible early 2020
Research contract v9 18 ghr oda	To be made accessible early 2020
Global Health Due Diligence Questionnaire (DDQ)	To be made accessible early 2020
Research-contract-v1-19-EME-hei	To be made accessible early 2020
Research-contract-v1-19-EME-nhs	To be made accessible early 2020
Research-contract-v1-19-EME-other	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-EME researchcouncil	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19 hei	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-i4i-commercial	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-i4i-hei	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-i4i-nhs	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-nhs	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-other	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-pdg	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-pgfar	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-prp-commercial	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-prp-hei	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-prp-nhs	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-researchcouncil	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-rfpb-commercial	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-rfpb-hei	To be made accessible early 2020
research-contract-v1-19-rfpb-nhs	To be made accessible early 2020
High-cost-threshold-process-visual.pdf	To be made accessible early 2020
PHE Application Form for Excess Treatment Costs	Accessible version on request. Please contact elizabeth.coates@phe.gov.uk
SoECAT Tool A	Accessible version on request. Please contact supportmystudy@nihr.ac.uk
SoECAT Tool B	Accessible version on request. Please contact supportmystudy@nihr.ac.uk
Progress report	To be made accessible early 2020
SRP summary progress report	To be made accessible early 2020
Final progress report	To be made accessible early 2020
NIHR Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation (RIGHT)	To be made accessible early 2020
NIHR RIGHT2 Impact Strengthening Workshop	To be made accessible early 2020
RfPB Panel Membership application form	To be made accessible early 2020
NIHR Research for Social Care (RfSC) Call Application for Membership of the Advisory Committee	To be made accessible early 2020
NIHR CRN CPAS – Investigational Medicinal Product statement	Accessible version on request. Please contact joanna.askey@nihr.ac.uk
Preparing Primary and Community Care in the NHS for Genomic Research	Partially accessible PDF. Not fully accessible due to disproportionate burden
Draft research contract between secretary of state for health (1) and contractor (2)	To be made accessible early 2020
NIHR Infrastructure Short placement award for research collaboration (SPARC) round 6 application form (WORD DOC)	To be made accessible early 2020
NIHR strategic review of training 2017	Partially accessible PDF. Not fully accessible due to disproportionate burden
NIHR SRoT Implementation Plans	Partially accessible PDF. Not fully accessible due to disproportionate burden