Accessibility statement for Babylon
Accessibility and inclusion at Babylon: our statement of purpose
Our mission at Babylon is to provide accessible and affordable healthcare to everyone. We aim to create high-quality products and services that everyone can use and enjoy. We are serious about the ethical and legal responsibilities that come with this mission.
What do we mean by “accessibility and inclusion”?
Accessibility is an inclusive and critical part of our work. There should be no barriers to Babylon services based on:
- Auditory, cognitive, physical, speech, and visual disabilities
- Geographic location
- Usage of preferred language (both spoken and signed languages)
Making our design accessible is something we’re committed to long-term. Babylon wants an equal experience for all our users as they access our products and services.
Accessibility makes it easier for anyone to find, access, and use our products. Accessibility boosts our product's effectiveness and increases its potential audience.
We design with accessibility in mind. From exploratory user research to the design process—right through to execution and testing. We use qualitative user research, automated testing and manual testing with assistive technologies. This ensures that our services are great experiences for all our users.
For patients who prefer a language that is not English, we offer interpreter services. This can be used with our Membership Support or during appointments.
Find out more about interpreting/translation services.
Accessibility guidelines
It is important to us to meet international standards for web content accessibility. The standards below apply to the Babylon website and our products. They cover design, content and functionality.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) define three levels of conformance. Each demonstrates an increasing level of accessibility for anyone with disabilities:
- Level A
- Level AA
- Level AAA
We follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) by meeting WCAG 2.1 level A-AA requirements. Where possible, we’ve applied level AAA criteria.
U.S. Rehabilitation Act and Section 508
Babylon Health is also committed to making its electronic and information technologies accessible to individuals with disabilities by meeting Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (28 U.S.C. 794d), as amended in 1998. Section 508 is a federal law that requires agencies to provide individuals with disabilities equal access to electronic information and data comparable to those who do not have disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency. The Section 508 standards are the technical requirements and criteria that are used to measure conformance within this law. More information on Section 508 and the technical standards can be found at www.section 508.gov. This webpage provides resources about Babylon’s policies, accessibility requirements and the formal complaints process, in addition to other accessibility resources.
How are we making Babylon Health accessible?
Babylon wants as many people as possible to access our services. We are always working to improve the experience for everyone. We do so by incorporating feedback and following accessibility guidelines. This means that you can customize our online content to your individual needs:
- Interact with all non-decorative content
- Zoom in up to 200% without text becoming illegible
- Use our website with a keyboard and/or switch control
- Use our website with a screen reader and other assistive technology
Compatibility with browsers and devices
Our products should be compatible with all current major browsers and devices. On some old browsers things may look different, but the information is the same. In Opera Mini, some of the functionality may not work in Extreme Mode.
Theme
Our theming capabilities put the user in control. We offer a dark theme and let users switch to a font developed by the Braille Institute for easier reading.
Animations and flashing content
The user can pause or stop Babylon Health animations that last longer than five seconds. When selected, the “prefers-reduced-motion” CSS media feature also keeps animation minimal.
Flashing content does not:
- Flash more than 3 times per second
- Flash red or colors on the red spectrum
- Keeps the area of flashing content small
Captions and transcripts
Captions enable deaf and hard-of-hearing people to consume video that has audio content. Captions on Babylon Health videos include all spoken dialogue and important sound effects. They include a font size and style that is easy to read.
Babylon Health transcripts from videos include:
- Spoken words
- Important sound effects
- Visual descriptions
Colors and color contrast
Contrast rules for text ensure both large and small text is accessible. Large text (24px or larger, or 19px or larger if bold) has a minimum contrast ratio of 3:1. Small text (smaller than 24px, or smaller than 19px bold) has a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1.
A contrast ratio of 3:1 also applies to:
- Graphics
- Interactive elements such as form fields, links and buttons
- Visual cues that show their state
Forms
A contrast ratio of 3:1 also applies to:
- All forms are single-column
- Minimized clutter assists with focus
- Multi-step forms include progress indicators
- Form fields have definable, clickable boundaries
- Form fields and controls are large enough to click or tap
- Hints and appropriate labeling guide the user
Headings
Headers can help the visually impaired user scan content to find what interests them. Web content heading labels reflect the hierarchy of different sections.
Links and buttons
Babylon users see differentiated buttons and links. Buttons show where to take a simple action, and identify these steps for screen readers.
Readability
Babylon content must work for every user. This means we keep it simple.
- Short, easy words
- No jargon or buzzwords
- Defined acronyms and specialist terms
- Sentences are short and clear
- Headings, subheadings and bulleted lists break up content
Session timeouts
The WCAG recommends multiplying the time it takes someone to complete a task by 10x. Babylon Health users get plenty of time to give a response. Timeout warnings include a clear warning message and a way to extend the session.
Text descriptions
Text descriptions help to understand images. Text descriptions work for both functional and informative images.
Typography and font styling
Body text fonts stay at 14pt or above for easy reading. There are clear sizing differences between body text and headings. Users can always increase text size.
The latest Babylon Health accessibility conformance reports
More information about our accessibility and inclusion efforts are in the reports below:
Global Marketing Website VPAT- USA & UK
Android App accessibility statement- US
iOS App accessibility statement- US
What we’re doing at Babylon to improve accessibility
What we’re doing at Babylon to improve accessibility:
- Providing continual accessibility training for our staff
- Raising general accessibility awareness across the organization
- Including accessibility throughout our internal policies
- Requiring accessible products from all our suppliers
- Testing all our products before they go live. This includes user research with disabled people and assistive technology users
- Incorporating feedback to improve our products and services
Give us feedback
Did you discover an issue or concern related to the accessibility of the Babylon website or app? Have a complaint about the accessibility of any Babylon product or service? Please contact us by emailing [email protected]. If applicable, please include the web address or URL and the specific problems that you find.
We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of our products. We try to respond to feedback within two (2) business days.
This statement is current as of November 2021. This website is managed and maintained by Babylon Partners Limited.
This accessibility statement applies to the Babylon Health website.