11-Jun-19 | News

New accessibility regulations for public sector websites and apps

New regulations mean that public sector websites and mobile apps will soon have a legal duty to meet accessibility requirements. You’ll need to:

  • carry out an evaluation of how accessible your websites and mobile apps are
  • fix accessibility problems (when you’re required to do so)
  • publish a statement saying what’s accessible, what’s not – and why

You’ll need to do this by 23 September 2019 for newer websites (those published later than 22 September 2018). There are later deadlines for older websites and mobile apps.

A central monitoring team at GDS will assess a sample of public sector websites and apps. The aim of monitoring is to help and encourage the public sector to make timely improvements to websites and apps – making them accessible to as many people as possible and avoiding the need for enforcement.

The sample will be chosen based on a number of factors, including:

  • how many people risk being excluded
  • where there are known or suspected problems (for example, because there have been complaints)

If the monitoring team discovers accessibility problems with a website or app in the sample, they will notify the website or app owner and signpost them to support to help resolve the problems. Read the full article here 

What is Digital Accessibility