The Accessibility Regulations for Public Sector Bodies came into force on 23 September 2018. They say you must make your website or mobile app more accessible by making it ‘perceivable, operable, understandable and robust’. You need to include and update an Accessibility Statement on your website.
The accessibility regulations build on your existing obligations to people who have a disability under the Equality Act 2010 (or the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 in Northern Ireland). These say that all UK service providers must consider ‘reasonable adjustments’ for disabled people.
The deadline for meeting the requirements and the steps you need to take depend on whether you have:
- A new website (published on or after 23 September 2018)
- An existing website
- Intranet and extranet websites
- A mobile app
All public sector bodies must meet the 2018 requirements unless exempt.
Public sector bodies include:
- Central government and local government organisations
- Some charities and other non-government organisations
Your team does not need to fix the following types of content because they’re exempt from the accessibility regulations:
- Pre-recorded audio and video published before 23 September 2020
- Live audio and video
- Heritage collections like scanned manuscripts
- PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 - unless users need them to use a service, for example, a form that lets you request school meal preferences
- Maps - but you’ll need to provide essential information in an accessible format like an address
- Third-party content that’s under someone else’s control if you did not pay for it or develop it yourself - for example, social media ‘like’ buttons
- Content on intranets or extranets published before 23 September 2019 (unless you make a major revision after that date)
- Archived websites if they’re not needed for services your organisation provides and they are not updated
You’ll need to explain in your accessibility statement that you’ve not made things like this accessible because they are exempt.
List any areas of Non-Compliance with a sentence such as; The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
- Accessibility problems
- Which of the WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria the problem fails on
- When you plan to fix the problem
Do not include any problems where you’re claiming a disproportionate burden, or where the problem is outside the scope of the accessibility regulations.
List accessibility problems you’re claiming would be a disproportionate burden to fix
Bear in mind that something which is a disproportionate burden now will not necessarily be a disproportionate burden forever. If the circumstances change, your ability to claim a disproportionate burden may change too.