This week sees the deadline that public sector organisations in the UK must have an accessible website as a result of legislation based on the European Union Directive 2016/2102/EU.  Congratulations to those teams in government departments, local authorities and universities who have worked hard to move towards compliance. For some, it has been a journey, but you got there! Now you need to make sure you do not undo the hard work that you have put in.

If you have been able to achieve an accessible website, a major mistake is to rest on your laurels and think you are done with accessibility. Maintaining an accessible website is an ongoing activity – it is not a tick in the box or a certificate that you are awarded that means you no longer have to worry about it. 

Because accessibility is both a content issue and a coding issue, it means every time you make a change to your website and every time you add a piece of new content, the new addition is not necessarily accessible. If you add a considerable amount of content either at once or over time, it can be all too easy to find yourself back at square one when it comes to accessibility.

However, with the right approaches, it is possible to keep on top of accessibility in ways that are not expensive, time-consuming or complicated. Here are seven approaches that help.

1. Keep on measuring and monitoring

   The single most important thing you can do to keep on top of accessibility is to carry on measuring and monitoring. This means you can then spot any issues that may come up as new content is added, if you have made tweaks to your style sheets or even if there is an update to your CMS.

   Having a measure or benchmark that reports your level of accessibility such as the Sitemorse INDEX is also a great way to galvanise people into action and maintain the high standards that you’ve already worked towards. Nobody wants to undo the efforts that have already been put in.

2. Fix issues as part of everyday content management

   If you are checking for issues as they come in, for example on a weekly basis, then it is easiest to do the fixes as soon as possible, ideally as part of the everyday content management processes that your team already carry out. In this way correcting an issue like a missing ALT TEXT, becomes similar to correcting a typo on a page. Here, Sitemorse’s role-based notifications for priority issues help highlight accessibility and ensure it is treated as an everyday issue.

3. Upskill the wider team

   Another good approach is to upskill your content creators and your coders so that they are unlikely to create accessibility issues in the first place. This means you take a more preventative approach that ultimately makes it easier for you to maintain accessibility.

    Here, actually fixing issues as they come up is a highly practical way to embed knowledge and skills and can be more impactful than more formal training. For example, when a person creates a piece of content, they are far less likely to create an issue they have fixed numerous times; they will want to avoid further work down the line.

4. Line up your digital providers and suppliers

   If you have been on an accessibility journey internally, then you need to make sure your digital providers and suppliers are on board with your commitment to stay compliant. This is very important as often digital agencies don’t give accessibility the attention it requires, or regard it as a customer responsibility. Of course, the best way to do this is through good communication with your provider, but it also helps to stipulate accessibility testing as a requirement on any agreed deliverables on future projects. This highlights the commitment to accessibility, provides clarity and  is a simple way to ensure your providers deliver on this.

5. Look at ways to monitor unpublished content

   If you are able to embed accessibility into everyday content management processes, it is possible to go further and make sure that all unpublished content is assessed for accessibility before it goes live. Here some Sitemorse customers have leveraged the Sitemorse INCMS product service that means Sitemorse is integrated within their CMS experience, and testing draft content before it is published is easy to achieve, just as part of the standard publishing process.

6. Keep accessibility on the agenda

   Digital teams are busy. Senior stakeholders are even busier. Often the reason that websites are not accessible is because it is simply low on the corporate agenda or team priorities. Here, you do not want to repeat the mistakes of the past; keeping digital accessibility on the agenda means it remains in focus and maintaining an accessible site is still a priority. There are numerous ways do this, for example incorporating accessibility into your strategy or as part of your organisation’s commitments to Diversity & Inclusion.

7. Keep focusing on improvement

   There are always improvements you can make. Are all your digital channels fully accessible? Are there areas such as PDFs where changes are made? Are there some types of disabilities that are served less well by your website? Keeping focused on improvement has a real-world impact and its always a good thing to do; keeping on top of compliance is then a given.

Don’t stop!

Improving and maintaining website accessibility requires ongoing activity. By ensuring it is an organisational and digital team priority, is part of everyday content management, and continuing to monitor and measure, you can keep your website the right side of compliance. It does not require a huge effort or cost; establish the right approach, get the right tools, line up your suppliers and off you go.