Regulation
Digital accessibility in the UK public sector is monitored by the Government Digital Service in England, Scotland and Wales, and enforced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
How it works
The Government Digital Service (GDS) monitors the compliance of public sector websites on behalf of the Minister for the Cabinet Office. GDS can ask for information and request access to intranets, extranets, apps or any public sector website.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in England, Scotland and Wales enforces the requirement to make public sector websites and mobile apps accessible (making them perceivable, operable, understandable and robust).
GDS has the power to refer public sector bodies to the EHRC where they find non-compliance with accessibility regulations.
Compliance audits
GDS has a team of compliance officers who proactively audit public sector websites for performance against accessibility regulations.
When your website is audited by GDS, you will be sent a report outlining:
which parts of your website were tested
how the accessibility of those pages was checked
the accessibility issues found and how important they are
what you need to do to fix the issues
You will be given 12 weeks to respond to the audit and complete the actions they recommend to fix any areas of non-compliance.
Some of these fixes may be possible for your in-house team to carry out, some may require development from your web supplier.
GDS carry out checks on both web pages and PDF files. They use a mixture of simple manual checks and automated tests to find only the most common barriers to users with accessibility needs.
Because of this, in addition to fixing any identified problems, GDS will ask you to carry out a more comprehensive audit of your own to root out any issues that their basic tests can't identify.
This can be done in-house by your team, or you can instruct us to carry out an industry standard web audit for you.
You will need to disclose any areas of non-compliance in your website's accessibility statement, which must:
have been updated within the last 12 months
state your website's level of compliance
clearly describe any non-compliances
follow the wording in the gov.uk model statement
You may also be asked to include how you plan to fix any remaining non-compliances and the timeline for doing so.
If your accessibility statement doesn't cover all of the above then you will be asked to audit your website in order to update it.
Get help
The compliance of your website may change over time as new content, features and functionality are added. Regular monitoring and auditing will help you keep your accessibility statement accurate and up to date.
Some monitoring can be done by your team in-house and there are many tools available to help you regularly monitor your content.
If you need help, we can:
carry out an industry standard web audit on your site
provide you with a compliant accessibility statement
upskill your in-house team through training and development
project manage your response to a GDS investigation
fix your PDFs if they are found to be non-compliant
create structured HTML webpages of non-compliant PDFs or other document types
support you to develop strategies for long term compliance
