What are the regulations?
The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018
- Websites, apps and documents hosted on websites must comply with accessibility standards (EN 301 549)
- Public sector organisations must publish an accessibility statement
- Government is required to monitor whether public sector websites are meeting these regulations
What do we mean by Digital Accessibility?
- Ensuring that digital resources work for everyone, whatever their access needs
- Scope includes websites, mobile apps, documents, ebooks, video and audio.
- Definition of website by Gov – anything, that you can access via a web browser
Exemptions
- Live audio and video and pre-recorded audio and video published before 23 September 2020
- Maps
- Documents such as PDFs published before 23 September 2018 that are not essential for services and heritage collections
- Third-party content that isn’t under the organisation’s control or hasn’t been purchased (e.g. social media ‘like’ buttons)
Further details on the Government Digital Service website
What needs to happen for web content to be accessible
- Rules
- Regulations
- Legal documentation
- Government resources