Accessibility

Bliss is committed to providing a website (www.bliss.org.uk) that is as accessible to as many people as possible.

Bliss is actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of this website according to the available guidelines and standards including WCAG 2.1.

We strive to ensure that all parents of babies born premature or sick can access the information and support on this website at the time that they need it, regardless of who they are, their stage in the neonatal journey, or their accessibility needs.

When using this website, you should be able to:

  • Navigate our websites with assistive technology via embedded landmarks and ARIA functionality, allowing use of screen readers and braille readers
  • Increase the font size and zoom in on content
  • Easily understand our content, which is written using plain English, and find the information you are looking for
  • Access audio versions of some of our written stories from families and healthcare professionals (available to listen on Spotify)

Whilst we seek to make our website as accessible as possible, we know there are some limitations, including:

  • We aim to provide subtitles, captions and/or transcripts with all our videos but that might not be available for older videos or for embedded videos from third-party resources
  • We do not provide audio descriptions for videos but aim to provide visual content in alternative formats where possible
  • We endeavour to ensure each image on the website uses alt-text to make it possible for screen readers to describe the image, but there may be pages where this is missing
  • Forms on our website may use placeholder text or non-visible instructions which might not be accessible to those using screen readers, which we are actively working on improving
  • We aim to provide more translated and easy-read content, however this is only available for some content

What tools could help me use this website?

Make things bigger – zoom and magnify

You can magnify to increase the size of text and images on your screen to help make them easier to see.

If you can’t see the screen – make your device speak to you

Screen readers will read out the website content for you if you can’t see the screen.

Talk to your device

Using voice recognition, you can talk to your phone or computer to complete actions and tasks without needing to use a keyboard or mouse.

Change the colours you see on screen

If colour blindness or a visual impairment makes some websites hard to use, most browsers allow you to set your own colour scheme. Select your device and browser to find step-by-step instructions.

Use your keyboard instead of a mouse

Some people find it easier to move through web pages using the 'Tab' button on the keyboard, and using 'Enter' to click on links and buttons.

Translate information on this website

Google translate is a free tool that you can use to translate words, phrases and web pages from English into over 100 other languages. Please be aware that Google translate is a machine translation engine. It will not have the same accuracy as material translated by a human translator. Bliss does not accept any responsibility for the accuracy of the translations.

Fonts to help people with dyslexia

There are free downloadable fonts available, including Dyslexie and OpenDyslexic to help users with dyslexia or dyslexia-related issues. These can make our site easier to use.

How we are testing and measuring this website’s accessibility

Our website has been designed to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards. The standard is an internationally recognised set of recommendations for improving web accessibility.

In April 2022, Bliss carried out an internal review into this website’s accessibility, with external input from our website development consultancy Electric Putty.

We extensively reviewed the website according to the above guidelines on desktop, mobile and using screen readers and made practical changes - including to the way we use headings and alternative text to improve the experience for those using screen readers.

Changes were also made to the tagging of navigational elements (the menu, submenu and breadcrumb) for these to be fully accessible to all screen readers.

We are a Trusted Information Creator with the Patient Information Forum. This means that our healthcare information has been developed through a professional and robust production process. Our information is audited annually to ensure it is clearly communicated, easy to access and navigate, and created with our service users.

We continue to respond to developments in the ways we can make this website more accessible to more people.

We welcome your feedback:

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

If you have any feedback, find any problems not listed on this page, or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact us:

By sending us an email

By phone at 020 7378 1122

To help us understand the problem as quickly as we can, please let us know

  • the web address or title of the page where you found a problem
  • details of what the problem is
  • what device (e.g. brand of phone, tablet, laptop, computer) and software you use.

We will endeavour to respond as soon as possible, usually within 5 working days.

This policy was last updated in March 2023.