Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to www.hssib.org.uk.

This website is run by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, 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)

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

We recognise that HTML documents are best for accessibility. All of our documents, including patient safety investigation reports, are published as HTML documents as standard. In some cases, like our annual reports, these are published as accessible PDFs.

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

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 please email enquiries@hssib.org.uk.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within five working days.

We’re always looking for new members to join our website user group, to provide feedback and help us to test new developments. If you’d like to get involved, please subscribe to our email alerts and tick the ‘website user group’ option.

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 our Digital Communications Manager by email at comms@hssib.org.uk.

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

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

Non-accessible content and non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Where possible we aim to fix any accessibility issues that we find. Any non-accessible content and non-compliance with the accessibility regulations will be listed here.

Non-accessible content

We are aware that the following PDF documents published by our legacy organisation may not be accessible:

  • Annual Review 2017/18
  • Annual Review 2018/19
  • Annual Review 2019/20
  • Annual Review 2020/21
  • Annual Review 2021/22
  • Easy read report: Medicine omissions in learning disability secure units
  • Maternity investigation programme year in review 2020/21
  • Maternity investigation programme year in review 2021/22
  • Supplement: HSIB’s local investigation pilot - shared learning for local healthcare systems
  • Supplement: Intrapartum stillbirth during COVID-19
  • Supplement: Support for staff following patient safety incidents

Disproportionate burden

The following documents are not available in an accessible format due to disproportionate burden:

  • Board papers and minutes

Board papers and minutes are currently published on our website as PDFs. These documents contain complex elements which are difficult to convert to an accessible format, such as tables, graphs and diagrams. Each document would require many hours of work to be recreated in a fully accessible version.

A low number of website users view our Board papers and to date we have not received any requests to provide them in an accessible format. We’ve assessed the cost of making these documents accessible and we believe that doing so would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of these documents in an accessible format, please email executiveoffice@hssib.org.uk to tell us what format you require.

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

PDFs and other documents

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.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 2 October 2023. It was last updated on 15 September 2025.