WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY SOLUTIONS

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS

All companies will need to ensure that their websites meet government requirements on accessibility as set out in the 2018 Regulations for website and mobile applications.

These Regulations are based on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines   These are known as WCAG2.1. There are four principles:

• Perceivable:
  Users must be able to perceive what is being presented on screen (it cannot be invisible to their senses)


• Operable:
  Users must be able to operate the interface


• Understandable: Users must be able to understand the information and hoiw to operate the interface.
  
  
• Robust:
  As technologies advance and website content changes, that content should remain accessible.

There are some things that you may not need to fix because they are exempt from the Regulations.  You will not need to fix any third party content. An example of this would be NHS widgets. Address details should be given so that reliance is not solely on maps.

PDF documents published before 23 September 2018 are exempt - unless they are needed to use a service (eg patient registration form). Live audio and video as well as pre-recorded video before 23 September 2020 are also matters that need not be fixed.

The Government Accessibilty Guidance  will help your team understand why they need to meet the website and mobile app accessibility regulations. 

MAKING YOUR WEBSITE COMPLIANT

The organisation is legally responsible for ensuring that its website meets the accessibility requirements - even if this is delegated to a supplier. 

The process of compliance involves conducting an audit. This can take a significant amount of time and be extremely costly - even before any remediation work is carried out. The government suggests that fees in the range of £1300 to £4000.

It is important to publish an accessibility statement which should be regularly reviewed. This should include contact information should a patient meet problems accessing content of the website.  If requested, the practice should be willing to provide information  in an alternative format that is accessible.

PDF documents published before 23 September 2018 are exempt - unless they are needed to use a service (eg patient registration form). Live audio and video as well as pre-recorded video before 23 September 2020 are also matters that need not be fixed.

Ideally, organisations will work with their website provider to work towards an accessibility solution.  

ACCESSIBILITY SOLUTION OPTION 1

One option would be to embark on a full manual website accessibility project. Depending on the size of the website, this would initially cost several thousand pounds - and also involve on-going work and costs to manually keep the site up to date.

MEDIA FIZZ ACCESSIBILITY SOLUTION OPTION 2

The  second option is  to deploy an auto remediation widget on the website that provides a level of compliance that meets the WCAG 2.1 standards. This is a simple solution that has been made possible by the development of AI and other innovations that automatically provides remediation throughout the website

Media Fizz is a partner with A global market leader  and we can offer a variety of simple and affordable solutions that meets individual needs.