Accessibility Statement

NIHR is committed to making its websites and mobile applications accessible, in accordance with national legislation transposing Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council and in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This accessibility statement applies to NIHR ARC Northwest London.
Compliance status 


Non-accessible content

The content listed in the below sections is non-accessible for the following reason(s):
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Apart from the exemptions listed below, this site is fully compliant with the accessibility regulations.

Some images on historic 'news' subpages do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We plan to add text alternatives for all images by end of 2023. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden


The breakdown of the existing Google Sites accessibility issues summarises the existing accessibility issues with Google Sites. Fixing for these accessibility issues is the responsibility of Google as providers of the Google Sites product. Therefore, fixes for these issues are beyond NIHR control. The only resolution to fixing these issues ourselves is to change website hosts to another supplier. We’ve assessed the cost of fixing these issues and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We continue to work with Google in providing feedback and collaborating to ensure Google’s products are as accessible as possible

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

Some of the documents and/or embedded content (e.g. AwesomeTables content) that we link to for additional information are outside our control and may not be fully accessible. 

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By September 2023, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

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. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Our site contains documentation such as PDFs or Word files and these have been checked for accessibility. 

Our site contains embedded material which is provided through AwesomeTables. Although the accessibility of this content is beyond our control, we've done our best to ensure it's as accessible as possible. If you require this information in a different format, please do contact us via our details below and we'll action your request. 


Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23rd June 2023. It was last reviewed on 23rd June 2023.

This website was last tested on 23rd June 2023. The test was conducted by the NIHR ARC NWL Engagement Coordinator, Cherelle Augustine.

We used a third-party accessibility tool called WAVE to test the accessibility of this website. WAVE can identify many accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) errors, but also facilitates human evaluation of web content. A full explanation of how this tool works can be found on WAVE’s website


Feedback and contact information

If you wish to report any accessibility challenges in using this website, or if you require any information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact:

Email: nihr.arc@imperial.ac.uk

Phone: 020 331 5814

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 30 days. If you do not receive a response, please contact the NIHR Service Desk on: 0207 333 5060 (internal or external) or visit https://www.support.nihr.ac.uk/sp (internal only) for assistance.


Enforcement procedure

If you do not receive a response to the above request, please contact the NIHR Service Desk (details above) for further escalation.

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).

This website has been built using Google Sites. Please see the NIHR Hub Accessibility Statement which gives more information regarding the general use of Google Sites, including contact details for users who require further Accessibility support.