NoW Accessibility Statement
Accessibility statement for the NHS Koha OPAC available at https://now.koha-ptfs.co.uk/
This accessibility statement applies to the North West NHS Knowledge and Library Services Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) known as NoW. This does not apply to the library staff interface hosted on the same domain.
This website is hosted by PTFS Europe. 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 300% 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 versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver);
· access the website using a mobile or tablet.
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.
Compliance status
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
· the book cover element on the OPAC homepage does not meet accessibility criteria;
· you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text;
· there is no in-built high contrast display setting;
· externally-generated book covers do not provide descriptive text.
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
helpdesk@knowledgehub.freshservice.com – NHS England Library service desk
We will consider your request and get back to you in 20 working days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact the helpdesk in the above section.
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).
Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
NHS England provide other contact methods than those listed above, which can be found on the Contact NHS England page. This includes a phone contact, Relay UK for people who are hearing or speech impaired, BSL video interpreter, and a postal address. Please note the accessible contact methods are generally available between Monday to Friday, 9am to 4:30pm.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Koha is compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act and meets web site accessibility to the W3C AA standard. Koha has a JavaScript dialect compliant with ECMAScript 262 edition 5.1. It is compliant with W3C AA, compliant with PECR 2011 and the ICO’s requirement in regard to cookies. It uses CSS 1/2 Style Sheets in preference to HTML formatting.
Koha is compliant with the new public sector requirements which came in on 23rd September 2020 which require public-facing applications to be accessible to level WCAG 2.1 AA standard. The Open Source Koha community QA process also includes accessibility as a pass/fail test when adding new code to the software.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, also known as WCAG, version 2.1 builds on WCAG 2.0 (for which Koha was already compliant). There are 17 differences between WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1 ranging from device orientation, to improved accuracy for Screen Readers. WCAG 2.1 addresses changes to the web, and how new technologies can be implemented, so all users have equal access. Koha plans to supports these.
Koha supports keyboard-only navigation.
Font size, text and background colours can be changed.
The Koha open source community has a role in the development team of Web Accessibility Advocate. This role is shared between release versions, and is currently held by Wainui Witika-Park, an Accessibility Advocate at Catalyst IT, New Zealand’s main Koha vendor.
Non-accessible content
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
1.4.8 Visual Presentation: foreground and background colours cannot be set by the user (high-contrast mode). There is a development request for this feature, also text can be magnified to 300% without losing page functionality or requiring horizontal scrolling.
This page does not conform, but would conform to WCAG 2.2 at level AA if the following two parts from uncontrolled sources were removed:
2.4.3 Focus Order: the book carousel on the home page when navigating by keyboard focuses on the book covers before it focuses on the “previous” arrow to the left of the display, which is out of sequence.
2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context): the book carousel on the home page does not make it clear from the text that this links to the book record page in question. Future development aims to make this clearer.
Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
1.1.1 Non-text Content: externally-sourced images of book covers on some pages (e.g. book record page, search results page) do not have a text equivalent, however the alt-text makes clear that the image has come from either Google Jackets or Amazon Books.
1.3.1 Info and Relationships: PDF files on eresources to “check your eligibility” are hosted on the OPAC. These do not have their headings properly configured for screen reading software, however these documents are very short and can be read in their entirety by text-to-speech software in under 30 seconds. When these PDFs need updating the headers will be programmed correctly.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
Koha is an open source software and information about the project’s development can be found on the community website, including accessibility bugs that have been reported and worked on.
As mentioned above, Koha has accessibility advocates in the community, which change depending on the current version of Koha being used. Koha has two main releases per year, and NoW generally uses the November release from the following May for 12 months.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was initially prepared on January 19th 2024. It was last reviewed on January 19th 2024.
This website was last accessibility tested on December 19th 2023 internally, by the Library Systems Manager.
Pages that were tested were:
· OPAC homepage
· Advanced search page
· Search results page
· Login/Password reset page
· Book record page
Links used in this statement
If you are reading a printed copy of this statement, the following is a list of hyperlinks that are referenced in the above document. They were valid as of 24th May 2024.
https://mcmw.abilitynet.org.uk/
https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/