Get help writing your website accessibility statement

UK legal compliance regulations came into force in 2018 that require all public sector websites to publish an accessibility statement. An accessibility statement explains how accessible your website is, lists any accessibility problems you are aware of and includes details of your plan to fix those issues. Accessibility statements – does your charity need to have one on your website?

Websites developed after September 2018 must be accessible. Those developed before that date must be made accessible when they are updated.

Public sector bodies are defined as:

• Central government organisations.
• Local government organisations.
• Some charities.
• Other non-government organisations.

Exemptions to the regulations

The following organisations are exempt or partially exempt from the regulations

• Public sector broadcasters and their subsidiaries.
• Non-government organisations such as charities – ‘unless they are mostly financed by public funding, provide services that are essential to the public or aimed at disabled people‘.

Partially exempt organisations

Partially exempt organisatisn include, “primary and secondary schools or nurseries – except for the content people need in order to use their services, for example, a form that lets you outline school meal preferences”

However, partially exempt organisations still need to publish an accessibility statement.

Exempt due to ‘disproportionate burden’

You may not need to comply even if you are not exempt because it would be a ‘disproportionate burden’. I.e., if your organisation is too small and does not have the resources to carry out the work.

If you declare that making your website accessible would be a disproportionate burden, you are legally required to carry out an assessment. For example, an accessibility audit to test your website against the WCAG 2 checkpoints.

“We are confident that implementing Jim’s recommendations will greatly improve the accessibility of our site. The report was, as far as possible, free from technical jargon…. This evaluation has been extremely useful.” Brigitte Cosford – Health Rights Information Scotland

Get in touch if you need help writing your accessibility statement.