All websites and mobile applications operated by the public sector must now abide by new regulations that took effect on September 23, 2018.
The best course of action in this situation is to:
- Check to see if your mobile app or website has any accessibility problems
- Create a practical plan to handle any accessibility problems you find
- Make a point of being accessible in public
- The use of new features should be simple
- There is information available to help if you're unsure of to whom the restrictions apply
Deadlines
You are required to adhere to accessibility standards and post an accessibility statement. Regular updates and reviews of your statement are advised.
Before going live, you should test how accessible your website or mobile application is. Make sure everyone can access your website or mobile application.
This does not require a careful reading of every page. Instead, examine a sample of your website or mobile app to see how the content and functionality are different. By analysing a sample, you should be able to find and fix any errors on a website or mobile app.
You can check your sample in a number of different ways. Choose the strategy that best fits the demands of your business. You might need to use more than one tactic in some situations.
Depending on the resources your organisation has, there are various ways to check that your website complies with the WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standard.
You won't need to include any content that is exempt from accessibility requirements when creating your sample.
Method 1: Perform a thorough internal audit on your own
Check your sample content and functionality carefully for WCAG 2.1 AA compliance with a member of your team or organisation who has the necessary technical expertise.
Method 2: Pay an agency
You can hire a third-party company to conduct a thorough audit of the content and functionality of your website if you don't have the resources to do it yourself.
When the audit is done, they can go back and check your website to make sure it is fully accessible. You can set priorities for the problems and address some or all of them.
You must budget for the cost of fixing any problems and rerunning the test. The time it takes to fix something could be long or short.
When you have fixed the accessibility issues, which typically takes about half as long as a first audit, your site or app should be re-audited.
The Service Manual for the UK government provides recommendations for choosing a vendor and creating an audit brief.
Method 3: Determine whether a thorough WCAG 2.1 audit will put an excessive load on the site
If you are unable to pay for it, an external audit of WCAG 2.1 is a "disproportionate burden." This suggests a cost that your business cannot cover.
You might claim that paying for an audit at a cost of £10,000 would be unfair if, for example, your monthly budget after necessary operational costs is £2,000 per month.
It is possible to perform a quick accessibility check in this scenario without any technical knowledge.
If your organisation is very small, a volunteer with some website experience might be helpful.
Method 4: A mix of the above
If you're working with a large number of websites but have limited resources, you might use more than one method of accessibility testing. Make sure your materials are arranged so that users can most effectively benefit from them.
For instance, you might not be able to afford to have all of your websites and applications audited. On the other hand, it might be possible to conduct an independent audit of your most important and frequently used content. Consider the following:
- Pay a third party to assess the most important content on your website
- Check to see if paying for an audit of your remaining websites or applications would be an excessive burden
- Use technique 3 to determine whether a thorough inspection would put undue strain on the remaining portions of your material (doing a rudimentary review)
- By law, you must conduct a burden assessment before deciding whether an audit will be too taxing
Considerations
The financial effects of an audit on your company; the benefits of improving accessibility for your website or mobile application
You shouldn't make the argument that an audit is unnecessary because you didn't give it enough attention, or that you didn't consider factors like a lack of time or expertise when making your evaluation.
Create a plan to handle any potential accessibility problems.
The following step is to come up with a plan for resolving any issues with your sample across the entire website or mobile application.
talking to people who are knowledgeable about how long problems take to fix and how difficult each remedy is.
Engage in dialogue with:
- Those who work with the code of your website, its suppliers, or those who edit documents and text on it
- Determine your priorities by analysing the impact of each change you are making. For example, accessibility standards should be met for essential services rather than dated marketing campaigns.
After conducting an audit, independent auditors can help you rank the problems with your website or mobile app. If the audio content has a transcript, for instance, you should be able to resolve some of the problems yourself.
The long-term strategy and all facets of the business' operations should take accessibility into account.
You won't need to make any changes if you conducted an evaluation of disproportionate burden as instructed on the main advice page. You might not need to fix all of the issues.
Create a plan for the future
After you've established your goals, it's helpful to have a high-level strategy or roadmap that outlines how you'll meet accessibility criteria.
Think about how you can improve the usability of your website or mobile application. Two examples include changing a component of your website or hiring a new provider.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it
The following types of content are exempt from the accessibility restrictions:
- Pre-recorded audio and video collections of digitised manuscripts and other live audio and video recordings that were published before September 23, 2020
- An address for third-party content that is in control of someone else, such as social media "like" buttons or content on intranets or extranets published before 23 September 2018, that you did not pay for or develop yourself, must be provided in order to use a service, such as an online form to request school meal preferences maps (unless you make a major revision after that date)
- websites that have been archived and are no longer updated but were once necessary for the services provided by your organisation
- It's preferable for all users if you can fix these problems, even if you don't have to, to make your website or mobile app more accessible to people with disabilities.
If you don't fix them, you'll have to justify why in your accessibility statement because things like these are exempt from accessibility requirements.
Make your declaration of accessibility widely known
You must be explicit if your website or mobile app is inaccessible.
Because most viewers won't be accessibility experts, make sure your message is written in a way that everyone can understand. This will make it easier for users with disabilities (like those who have cognitive impairments or learning disabilities) to use your website or mobile app.
You must cover the following subjects in your statement:
- You might not be able to use your mobile app or website, regardless of how fully, partially, or not it complies with accessibility standards. How can your website or mobile app be made more accessible? Why is it currently inaccessible? (For instance, because they are exempt or because fixing the situation would be disproportionately difficult)
- Alternatives to non-accessible information for those with disabilities. a way to reach you regarding accessibility concerns. a URL for the website they could visit if they weren't happy with your response.
- Websites and apps that fully comply with accessibility standards do so; those that partially comply with accessibility requirements do so; and those that do not comply with accessibility requirements at all are considered non-compliant.
Include information about how you decided whether or not your website or mobile app is accessible and the steps you plan to take to make it so.
The declaration ought to be posted online as an HTML page. A link to this page should be placed in the website footer or on each page of your website.
If you're creating a mobile app, make the statement accessible to users via the app store, your website, or both. Make sure it is accessible so that everyone can use it.
We've created an example accessibility statement to make it simpler for you to draught your own. Some of the language in your statement must be present in order for it to be legal. The rest should be customised to your organization's requirements.
This statement serves as an illustration of the information that should be included in an accessibility statement using the model accessibility statement.
On a regular basis, you should review and update your statement (when there are major changes and at least once a year).
Ensure that everyone can utilise new features
Any additional features or content that you add to your website must adhere to accessibility standards.
The staff members who work on your website or mobile app have a responsibility to guarantee that all of its content and features are accessible to everyone. Otherwise put - creating links that work, organising information properly, and including images and videos in any new PDFs or other documents they create. Also, it is possible to test new features with assistive technology.
By putting the appropriate procedures and resources in place, you can simplify these tasks for your staff. Making things accessible from the start is preferable to having to go back and make corrections later on.