Public Sector Digital Accessibility Regulations

 

The Public-Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 means that we have a legal duty to meet certain digital accessibility standards on all our digital platforms and websites. The best way of doing this is to check how far your website or app currently meets the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. Then, make a plan to fix the problems you’ve found. As a minimum your website must feature an accessibility statement that is in a compliant format. Accessibility statement is a legal document that outlines your website's accessibility compliance journey.

Read the glossary to get the definition of website in this context.

What you need to do:

  • Carry out an evaluation of how accessible your website or mobile app is. An accessibility audit can be arranged by central ICT and recharged to an account of your choice. You can carry out your own accessibility audit if you have the necessary capabilities. A thorough accessibility audit consists of series of manual and automated tests, several user journeys are completed using various different supportive tech and browser combinations as well as keyboard only navigation and levels of magnification . You can request accessibility testing from ICT Tooling team by fillig in a request form. 
  • Fix any accessibility problems to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 level AA standard.
  • Publish a compliant accessibility statement stating what’s accessible, what’s not, and how you plan to improve each non-compliance and when, offering a clear support email for any users that may need support in the mean while.

When you need to do this:

  • For any websites created after September 2018 you need to act now. The regulations stipulate that these sites should have been compliant by September 2019.

Detailed guidance

The Government Digital Service have published further information on Understanding new accessibility requirements for public sector bodies.

Accessibility statements

Minimum requirement under the public-sector accessibility regulations is that your websie must feature a web accessibility statement , detailing how accessible your site is, any areas that are not meeting the accessibility standards, and what you are doing to improve the accessibility levels. The statement should offer a contact email for users to seek support or to lodge a complaint. They may request an accessible version of any document or form, request an alternative way to access the service that is on offer.

If your webpage is within the main Imperial T4 content management system (CMS) it will be covered under the Imperial website statetment. Simply make sure to follow all accessible content guidelines, so that your content on T4 is accessible. All other Imperial affiliated sites must follow these guidelines as well. However they need to feature their own accessibility statement via a prominent link, most common location for such a link is the footer. The statement must be offered as a .HTML page because  .PDF format can have accessibility challenges.