Accessibility FAQs

When did the latest accessibility regulations come into effect?

The latest accessibility regulations came into effect for public sector bodies on the 23rd September 2018.

The following dates apply:

• Public sector websites that were created after 23rd September 2018 must now comply with the requirements (came into force on the 23rd September 2019)
• Public sector websites that were created before 23rd September 2018 will also now need to comply with requirements (came into force on the 23rd September 2020)
• All public sector apps must be accessible by 23rd June 2021
• If we have more than one website, is the regulation applicable to all of our websites?
• The law applies to all websites that are funded and/or managed by a public body, no matter if it’s a co.uk or gov.uk website.

Does the regulation include intranets?

The regulations state that the content of extranets and intranets published before the 23rd September 2019 do not need to comply until such websites undergo a substantial revision.

Does the regulation cover all services on a Public Sector website, for example, claiming benefits?

Yes. If the information is on your website, it must be accessible.

Do the third-party websites that we link to need to be accessible in line with the regulation?

It’s the third-party’s responsibility to become accessible. If you have no control or you are unable to make these websites accessible, you can include this information in your statement as something that isn't accessible.

There are several services and systems on our website that the Web Team do not have control of, what should we do?
We advise that you reach out to those who do have control of these sections of your websites. If they’re unable to make the changes, you must list which parts of your website aren’t accessible in your accessibility statement on your website. 

What constitutes a new website?

Any new domain must comply with the regulations (as per the regulation, by September 2019). Existing domains must also now comply (as per the regulation, by September 2020).

We are referring more to the design and usability of your website, so this is more of a facelift. Some website software includes accessible features, including the Jadu CMS.

Find out more about Jadu CMS.

When moving from PDF application forms to online forms, does the regulation apply?

Yes. The guidelines and regulations also apply to online forms.  

Does the regulation cover Public Body social media accounts?

The regulations themselves do not specifically mention social media but if your organisation must use social media then you have a responsibility to serve that content in an accessible way. You can read our blog on how to make your social media more accessible.

Are there any new guidelines around site search results?

There aren’t any specific guidelines around search results in particular but they need to comply with all relevant content and accessibility guidelines.
 

Can you recommend any assistive technology software or programmes?

Here’s a list of our suggested screen readers you can use:

• VoiceOver - This is free and comes installed on Macbooks.
• JAWS - This is the most popular, but you will need to pay for this. It works best with IE11 or Google Chrome.
• NVDA - This is free and is best used with Firefox.

All the above screen readers may work in a slightly different way, but using one screen reader will mean that the others are likely to work as well. 

For keyboard navigation you won’t need to install any extra programs or extensions, simply open a webpage and start pressing tab. Another useful tool we would recommend is the Hemmingway text checker, this allows you to check the reading age of the text you have written and won’t take long to use - www.hemingwayapp.com. 

Do you recommend using assistive technology software in-house?

Yes whenever you can it’s always worth using assistive technology. It will open your eyes to the challenges you are trying to improve. Our suggestion would be to use a screen reader, and then try to navigate through your content and see if it makes sense. 

Things like headings and buttons can be accessed via a rotor when using a Screenreader, so making sure text makes sense on it’s own is important. Another would be keyboard navigation, this involves using just the tab key to navigate around your website. This is important as you should always be able to tell where you are on a webpage.

This will mean things like focus states should change when you are tabbed onto a button or link.

What should we do with PDFs/downloads that aren’t accessible?

These are a huge issue for public sector bodies and Jadu Creative have been dealing with issues relating to PDFs even before the updated WCAG 2.1 guidelines and new regulations.

Here are some steps to follow: 

• Conduct a content audit. Some of the content may not be needed any more. Tip - look at your analytics to evaluate the quality and usability of your content. 
• Using analytics, you can work out what you can delete first. You can also see which pieces are most used, and start to make them accessible first.
• For any content you would like to keep, you can look at Acrobat tools to make the PDFs accessible, or even better, you can look at digitising your forms. Tip: digitising your forms is also better for SEO and findability reasons. 

Can you convert a PDF into HTML to make it accessible? What do we need to keep in mind when converting, and once it’s converted do we need to tag images?

It depends on how you convert them. There are many tools out there that claim to convert these for you with no effort. However, building the HTML from scratch is better! If you are using a converter, then you need to check everything to ensure tagging is done properly, the layout is done properly, etc.

PDF markup is quite complex and there are many different versions (as they get older).

Are bookmarks required for PDFs to be accessible?

Bookmarks are required if the PDF has 21 or more pages 

Are page numbers required in PDFs?

No they are not required. Screen reader technology allows users to identify page number if they so choose.

Should you use PDFs for lengthy, policy documents etc?

Unless there is a legal reason to require the information to be presented in this way, then there is no reason why this couldn't be displayed via HTML pages. The size doesn’t really make a difference. PDFs will also have a far larger file size than HTML web pages. 

Can you use the same link text and same destination link several times on the same page?

It is generally bad practice to present multiple links to the same location on the same page. It can be extremely confusing for all users as it isn’t always obvious that the links point to the same place - you should have one clear link for users to follow.

The Nielsen Norman Group states that “duplicating links is one of the four major dangerous navigation techniques that cause cognitive strain.”

From the accessibility perspective it would also be frustrating to some users who require assistive technologies - for example, screen readers are often set up to read the content and then pull out the links, at which point you would end up with the reader repeating the same thing again and again.