Accessibility Services

Make your website accessible to people with disabilities

The new accessibility regulation deadline fully comes into force on 23rd September 2020 for websites published before 23rd September 2018 and is already in force for websites published after 23rd September 2018.

The regulations are set out from the Making online public services accessible website page and there are also details regarding enforcement.

NHS X have advised us that GP Practices legally fall into the category of Public Body therefore it is up to Practices to ensure their website meet the WCAG 2.1 AA Accessibility standards.

 

From September 2019 we spent around 9 months working on all our websites to help ensure you meet the regulations. Some 25 hours was spent editing each website.  Updates included:

• adding keyboard functions
• adding a title to every page
• re-formatting the headings and right-side templates
• making all forms fully complaint
• tagging all sub-headings in the header and right panel
• ensuring all text meets contrast ratio standards with a ratio of at least 7.

 

Within your page content we also made a start for you. Major updates included:

• All page sub-headings were given the correct heading levels (Heading 2 Heading 3 etc.) styles
• We checked every link on every page and made them meaningful
• We’ve even updated some of the standard page content such at young person’s / external advice and the GP Team pages.

 

Note: As the updates for page content were carried out from December 2019 to February 2020 you may have edited your website and re-introduced incorrect heading levels and non-meaningful links since.  Our Accessibility Support Centre and editing instructions can help you correct this, or you can use our new service which is detailed below.

 

Now it’s your choice how you would like to ensure your website meets the new regulations.  We think there are 4 options:

1. Self-Assess your Website

As well as the advice on updating the Accessibility page we’ve also put together advice at the Accessibility Support Centre on:

• checking documents for accessibility
• ensuring there are no images of text
• checking all links are meaningful
• checking tables can be read by screen readers
• correcting heading levels
• removing bad format such as unnecessary headings and underlined text

 

2. Commission a Third Party

Commission a company that specialise in accessibility assessments. They will advise you what you need to change and even things we might need to change.  We’ll be happy to quote for any work.

 

3. Use our Accessibility Services

We will complete an annual check of your website every autumn to ensure:

• documents meet accessibility regulations and advise what we can correct and what you might need to reproduce
• ensure there are no images of text and advise you what we can update and try to correct, or just remove images that cannot be corrected.
• correct all non-meaningful links
• check all tables can be read by screen readers and attempt to correct
• correct bad format such as unnecessary headings and underlined text
• update your Accessibility Policy

Tell me more

 

4. Do Nothing

You could go for this but run the risk of being singled out by the enforcement team. You could also be excluding patients with disabilities from interpreting your website fully.  If you do decide on this route, which we really would not recommend, at the very least you should update your Accessibility statement which can be found via the link on the right side of every page:

 

Throughout the year your website is going to be become less and less accessible as you edit. This is evitable, however you can check our Accessibility Support Centre for advice.  If you decided to use our service, we'll correct your website every year and make any recommendations, so all is good again.

 

Finally...

We know some practices have an accessibility champion and as knowledge grows, we are always open to suggestions so we can enhance and update our support centre advice.  Please contact us via the support centre if you have any suggestions, we’re all ears!

 

Resources

Understanding accessibility requirements for public sector bodies (.gov reference page)

How the accessibility regulations will be monitored and enforced (.gov reference page)

The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018
Accessibility statement (Under Public Law:)
8.—(1) A public sector body must provide an accessibility statement in accordance with the model accessibility statement, and keep that statement under regular review.