Website Accessibility Regulations
The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations come in to effect for all public sector organisations’ websites on 23 September 2020.
This means that all public sector websites must meet certain accessibility criteria in order to ensure that their website is accessible to people with disabilities such as:
- blindness or impaired vision
- motor difficulties
- cognitive impairments or learning disabilities
- deafness or impaired hearing
Extensive work has been carried out to ensure that the Council website meets the legislative requirements and additionally, accessibility accreditation is being sought from the Shaw Trust. We are now committed to ensuring that all content, documents (pdfs, word, forms etc) published to the website meet the accessibility regulations.
The best way to meet the regulations is to publish summary information, in simple language on a web page, and for forms to be created as e-forms to be completed and submitted directly from the website. If this is not possible and a document or form needs to be published as an attachment to be downloaded, it must be in an accessible format.
All services therefore need to ensure that the documents they need to publish on the Council website are written in plain English, avoid jargon, and are accessible. Key aspects to consider in producing documents for publication are:
- Headings: Use appropriate headings and heading structure to break up the document
- Colour and contrast: Make sure that text colour and background can be clearly read
- Alt text: All images must have 'alt text' added so they can be read by screen readers
- Tables: These must have clearly labelled columns and rows and no merged cells
- Links: All hyperlinks must be from informative text for screen readers. Avoid 'click here'.
Guidance for employees on how to ensure that documents are accessible has been published on a new page in the Employee Zone.
It shows you how to use the accessibility checker function in Microsoft word and includes guidance on correcting common accessibility issues.
Please ensure that you make your documents accessible before you submit them to be published on the Council website.
Please email webmaster@eastdunbarton.gov.uk if you need any further support.
Thank you
Ann Davie
Depute Chief Executive – Education, People & Business