Accessibility

Content must be usable by everyone, regardless of age, background, circumstances and ability. This includes supporting users:

• with visual, hearing, cognitive or motor impairments
• with learning difficulties
• who have a temporary issue, such as viewing content in a busy, noisy environment where it's hard to concentrate

Accessible content is clear and simple enough that most people can use it straightaway, whilst also supporting those who need to adapt it.

Our users may not have a choice about when to use our websites, so it's important they work for everyone. And often, the people who most need our services are the people who find them the hardest to use.

It's everyone's responsibility to make sure content is accessible and it must be considered throughout the design process. Accessible design is good design. 

The Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018 says our digital services must be accessible to everyone who needs them.

The Government Digital Service (GDS) monitors public sector bodies' compliance by examining a sample of public sector websites and mobile apps every year.

We must:

• meet level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2
• publish an accessibility statement, that details how we do and don't meet accessibility standards and what we're doing about any issues

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

WCAG (W3C) is an internationally recognised set of standards for web accessibility. The guidelines explain how to make digital services, websites and apps accessible for everyone.

There are 13 guidelines which are organised under 4 principles:

• perceivable: make content available through sight, hearing and touch
• operable: users should be able to navigate and interact with content
• understandable: make text clear and readable
• robust: content should work across devices and assistive technologies

Understanding WCAG 2.2 (GOV.UK)

What happens if we don't meet the requirements

We'll be in breach of the 2010 Equality Act and Disability Discrimination Act 1995 if we don't:

• meet web accessibility requirements
• provide a satisfactory response to a request to produce information in an accessible format

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) can investigate, issue unlawful act notices, take court action and issue fines against non-compliant organisations.

Further information

• Accessibility requirements for public sector bodies (GOV.UK).
• Accessibility posters: how to design content for users with different needs (GOV.UK).
• List of tools to evaluate web accessibility (W3C).
• Impact of accessibility and the benefits for everyone in a variety of situations (W3C).

By default, publish content as a html webpage, rather than in a file, such as a pdf.

Webpages are more accessible because they're easier:

• for users to customise
• to use on mobile and smaller devices
• to access, as they don't have to be downloaded
• to update

Content must be accessible. Many of our design principles and much of our style guidance is in place to support this. For example:

• charts and graphs
• headings
• images
• links and link text
• maps
• page titles
• text must be clear and to the point

Also, do not rely solely on colour, images, graphics, shape, size, position on a page, orientation or sounds to convey information or importance. Use a combination of positioning, colour and text labels instead.

If content has to be in a document, rather than on a webpage, follow these steps to make it accessible.

Language and structure

• Give the document a clear, active and descriptive title.
• Use a sans serif font like Calibri or Aptos and a minimum size of 12 points.
• Use sentence case and do not use block capitals or italics.
• Write in plain English, be clear and to the point.
• Use headings to break up the content into sections, how to add a heading in a Word document (Microsoft).
• Avoid underlining, except for links.
• Avoid using links as they're unlikely to be updated if they break, if you must add a link make sure the link text clearly describes where it goes.
• If your document is more than 3 pages, add a table of contents (Microsoft).
• Avoid footnotes where possible, provide explanations inline instead.

Follow the guidance on structuring and tagging your document in an accessible way if you're using:

• Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Pro
• LibreOffice
• Microsoft Office

Images, charts and graphs

• Make the content accessible to people with a visual impairment by explaining the context and contents in alt text (Microsoft) or in the body of the document.
• Do not use colour or shape alone to convey meaning.
• Use the WebAIM contrast checker to check the contrast between different colours.
• Do not use decorative images, including those used for layout purposes such as horizontal line separators.
• Do not use images containing text, because screen readers cannot read it.
• Do not use screenshots of charts or graphs because screen readers cannot read the data in them. Embed charts and graphs into your document using the chart tools in Word or Excel.

Tables

• Only use tables for data.
• Keep tables simple and use the Microsoft table function.
• Do not add images or screenshots of tables because screen readers cannot read them.

How to create an accessible table (Perkins e-learning).

Run an accessibility check

When you're ready to publish, run an accessibility check in the document. Use:

• Microsoft's accessibility checker
• Adobe's accessibility checker

Further information

• Publishing accessible documents on GOV.UK
• Creating Accessible Documents on AbilityNet

Your product must meet level AA of WCAG 2.2.

You should publish an accessibility statement which includes:

• how you've evaluated your product's accessibility
• details of your WCAG compliance
• details of anything that doesn't meet accessibility standards and why
• how people can get alternative content
• how people can report accessibility problems
• a statement explaining that users can escalate complaints to the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)

If it's not possible to have the accessibility statement on your platform, you must send us the information to add to our accessibility statement, which you can then link to.