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Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to all content published on www2.hse.ie/accessibility-statement/, www2.hse.ie/babies-children/, www2.hse.ie/complaints-feedback/, www2.hse.ie/conditions/, www2.hse.ie/contact/, www2.hse.ie/cookie-statement/, www2.hse.ie/living-well/, www2.hse.ie/mental-health/, www2.hse.ie/my-child/, www2.hse.ie/pregnancy-birth/, www2.hse.ie/screening-and-vaccinations/, www2.hse.ie/services/.

This website is run by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

For example, that means you should be able to:

  • 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
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader
  • view content in different ways without losing information or structure

We’ve also made the website text as easy to understand as possible.

Less accessible parts of the site

Some parts of this website are not fully accessible, for example:

  • some pages have links to websites or software that we do not own or manage and so cannot guarantee their accessibility
  • the feedback widget that is located on all pages is not accessible to all users, especially those on assistive technologies
  • some users of assistive technology will find it difficult to know when a toggle menu is expanded or collapsed, for example, the menu and search options in the global navigation panel

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format email digital@hse.ie. We’ll get back to you within 7 days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact digital@hse.ie.

Enforcement procedure

If you are not happy with our response, or you want to raise an accessibility issue that is not related to this website, you can make a complaint online at the HSE complaints and feedback section.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

Non-accessible content

The content that is not accessible is listed below. We aim to fix these issues by November 2023.

Content that is not accessible

  • Some pages have content with fixed line heights and text spacings that cannot be modified.
  • Some user interface components cannot be programmatically determined by all users.
  • Some pages have focus and parsing order issues that affect users on different assistive technologies.

PDFs and non-HTML documents

Some documents are not accessible in a number of ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure.

Older PDFs that were created before 2018 are not accessible.

Contact digital@hse.ie to request documents in an alternative format.

Disproportionate burden

We believe that fixing the accessibility problems with some content in PDFs and video would be disproportionate because the relevant content is currently being updated.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 20 May 2022. It was last reviewed on 31 July 2023. This website was last tested for accessibility issues on 25 July 2023. The test was carried out by HSE Digital.

How we did the test

We use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level A and Level AA to test and audit the level of conformance.

We have tested the site on different devices, screen readers and browsers.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We have assembled a multi-disciplinary team who are working on accessibility on an ongoing basis. Departments and agencies are urgently fixing content which fails to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 AA standard. We will update this page when issues are fixed.