UK public sector websites had to be accessible by the 22^nd September, being compliant with European standard EN 301 549 V1.1.2 (2015-04) based on legislation that came into force in the UK in 2018. But the results from our INDEX quarterly benchmarking indicate that many public sector websites appear to still have considerable work to do; indeed over a quarter (28%) of UK Government and Public Bodies score zero for accessibility, and 32% scored 4 or less out of 10. The situation is a little better for UK Local Government, where 15% of local authorities score zero for accessibility and 19% score 4 or less out of 10, but there is clearly still a lot of work to do.

Our benchmarking suggests a huge swathe of web teams will need to play catch-up to achieve compliance. If this is the case, the time to act is now; this really needs to be part of your plans for 2021.

However, this doesn’t mean you have to drop everything or go cap in hand to argue for huge levels of investment; taking a level-headed view and steady approach to improving accessibility often reaps results without the need for a big budget. But you do need to do something.

Here are seven next steps to consider if your public sector website is not accessible.

1. Make a commitment to prioritise accessibility

   There are a variety of reasons that websites end up with poor accessibility, but generally it is because of a lack of awareness about what needs to be done to improve accessibility or a lack of prioritisation. Sometimes teams can believe they are already dealing with accessibility, for example through using a piece of software, but this is not actually the case. Whatever the reason, it is now important to make that commitment to prioritise accessibility and actually do something about it. Here, support from senior stakeholders is important too; thankfully, making the business case for prioritising accessibility when you are not compliant with the law should be a fairly easy sell, at least on paper.  

   When making the commitment, the important factor is to actually get started. Once you are underway, improving accessibility is relatively straightforward, but you do need action rather than just intention here.

2. Work out where you are

   To work towards compliance, you need to work out where you are and what needs to be done to improve accessibility. The quickest and cheapest way to achieve is through an automated assessment tool that specialises in accessibility and can be run remotely; you can use Sitemorse on a one-off basis for this purpose, for example. This is cheap, effective and can be set up within minutes.

   Running an automated assessment can give you a detailed report on the actions you need to take to improve accessibility. You might run this over your whole site or just a key section of it, for example your most visited pages. Working out where you are and what needs to be done is the first step on the improvement journey; it also gives you a baseline from where to measure progress, and can help to galvanise action across stakeholders if they don’t believe any action is, in fact, required.

3. Assemble the team

   To start to make the necessary improvements you will need to assemble the right team. In most public sector authorities this is likely to be small, but essential. You’ll need:

   • A frontend developer who can work on fixing any coding issues
   • Key content owners who can work on fixing issues with their content
   • A web manager who pulls everything together and co-ordinates activity

   Realistically, the web manager may also be working on improving the content and may not necessarily involve other content owners, so the project “team” may only be two people; for example, at Chesterfield Borough Council a team of two was able to make excellent progress.

   You may also consider the team to include an engaged senior stakeholder who is also supporting your efforts from a management perspective. The point here is that you do need a mix of technical and content people to work on the range of issues that needs to be fixed.

4. Carve out some time every week for the next few months

   It’s now important to carve out some time each week for the next few months to be working on improving accessibility. Everyone is busy and has existing duties, therefore this time needs to be realistic so it can be adhered to. Half a day a week may be a realistic commitment that ensures progress but doesn’t create problems elsewhere. We would recommend diarising this to encourage people to stick to using that time.

5. Get started on fixing issues

   The methodology we advocate to make improvements isn’t rocket science. Leveraging the automation and features of a platform like Sitemorse should give you a list of the issues to work through; the time you carve out each week should then be used to work through those fixes and start to make improvements on the site. Here ensuring the right role works on the right issue helps drive a more efficient approach.

6. Work on the priority areas

   In working through the list of fixes, prioritisation is key. Which are the most important pages which need fixes? Which fixes are going to have the biggest impact for users with accessibility issues? Which fix is going to impact the most pages? For example, a coding problem could be impacting multiple pages across your site.  Prioritisation is key to making solid progress through your issues list and is something we’ve built into Sitemorse, suggesting the fixes you should be working on that are going to have the most impact.

7. Track improvement and keep on going

   Improving accessibility by working through a list of fixes leads to steady improvement and supports your journey towards compliance, but it doesn’t get you there overnight. You need to keep on going and some persistence is required; here, tracking the improvements you’ve made and demonstrating solid progress through ongoing measurement is key. This can play a surprisingly important role in keeping everyone motivated and focused on improvement.

Good luck!

Working on improving accessibility for your public sector website is critical. You’re not only working towards meeting your legal requirements but also making a real-world difference to a high number of your visitors. Good luck on your website accessibility journey!