Accessibility

Accessibility statement for the JPAC website

The Joint Professional Advisory Committee to the UK Blood Transfusion and Tissue Transplantation Services (JPAC) is an advisory committee to the UK blood services and prepares detailed guidelines for their use. We are funded by the four UK blood services and hosted by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT).

JPAC is committed to making our website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (websites and mobile applications) (No 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This accessibility statement applies to www.jpac.org.uk. This website is maintained by JPAC and is supported by NHSBT. It has been designed to meet the needs of a wide range of users.

You should be able to:

• zoom in up to 400% without problems
• change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard or with speech recognition software
• use most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

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Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed in the non-accessible content section of this page.

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How accessible is this website?

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

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

• Some pages and documents may use complex language
• Most older documents, especially PDFs, are not fully accessible
• Many complex figures are not easily described by additional text

We have conducted an audit and are reviewing all resources on our website to determine which parts are not yet fully accessible. We have identified the need for several improvements which are listed in the non-accessible content section of this page.

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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 contact us my emailing JPACOffice@nhsbt.nhs.uk

In your message, include:

• the web address (URL) of the content
• your name and email address
• the format you need (for example: audio CD, braille, BSL or large print, accessible PDF).

We are committed to responding promptly and will make every effort to provide an accessible version as quickly as possible.

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Report accessibility problems with this website

If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or you think that we are not meeting the accessibility requirements, please contact us using the details provided above and let us know, so that we can put it right.

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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, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

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Non-accessible content

The content that is not accessible is outlined in this section with details of how it fails the success criteria.

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Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

We have historically published documents as PDFs and/or Word documents between 2010 and 2025 that are not necessarily accessible. Our goal is to ensure all active and relevant documents on our website meet the standards outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA.

We are committed to reviewing documents and other educational resources regularly to ensure they meet current accessibility standards. In the interim, if users need an accessible version for any document/resource, we encourage contacting us using the details provided above.

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Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services. If users need an accessible version for any of past documents, we encourage contacting us using the details provided above.

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

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What we are doing to improve accessibility

At JPAC, we are committed to making all content on our website, including downloadable documents, accessible to all users. We understand that some of our existing resources may not fully meet the accessibility standards and we are actively working to address this.

Here are the steps we are taking:

Reviewing existing resources

We are conducting an ongoing review of all PDFs, Word documents and other file types to identify and prioritise accessibility improvements

Creating accessible formats

When uploading new documents, we ensure they are created in compliance with accessibility guidelines, such as providing proper heading structures, alternative text for images and clear layouts

Converting legacy documents

Older documents and resources are being updated or replaced with accessible versions as part of our accessibility improvement plan over the next 5 years if covered under the accessibility guidelines

Training staff

Members of the JPAC Office are being trained on accessibility best practices to ensure that all future documents meet accessibility standards. We are becoming familiar with producing accessible documents and other outputs, including the website, reports, and other publications.

Providing alternate formats

If a document/resource is not accessible, we encourage users to contact us for an alternative format.

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Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 31 March 2026 and will be reviewed annually.

This website was last tested by the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) on 18 February 2026 against the WCAG 2.2 guidelines, to level AA. DAC used the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test.

Conformance evaluation of web accessibility included a combination of semi-automated evaluation tools and manual evaluation by an experienced reviewer. As the website is composed of many pages, the testing was carried out using a representative page sample approach. All the key pages and the main page types were evaluated as part of this review.

Failures to meet to meet the WCAG 2.2 AA standard identified in the last audit are being addressed, with a repeat audit to be carried by 1 May 2026.

As part of our ongoing website management, we carry out regular assessments and checks of documents and pages that are uploaded. An accessibility audit of the JPAC website is planned once every 2 years.

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