The Regulations to make public sector websites and mobile applications accessible became law on 23 September 2018. They build on the existing legal obligations to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010.
The regulations place a stronger emphasis on all of us to ensure our content and digital services are inclusive.
To comply with the new regulations HMRC’s website and apps have to:
- meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 to level AA
- publish an accessibility statement
An accessibility statement states whether the website, service or app is ‘fully’, ‘partially’ or ‘not’ compliant with accessibility standards. If it’s not fully compliant, it must say which parts aren’t currently meeting accessibility standards and why.
Find out more about the regulations
- Understanding new accessibility requirements for public sector bodies (GOV.UK)
- How we’re helping public sector websites meet accessibility requirements (GOV.UK blog)
- Public sector website accessibility statements - what you need to know (GOV.UK blog)
- Accessibility update: sample accessibility statement, monitoring and enforcement (GOV.UK)
The term ‘websites’ includes our digital services, web pages of content, forms and PDFs. The regulations also includes internal websites.
Within HMRC the following are examples of content and digital services that are affected and must comply with the regulations.
- HMRC specialist content on GOV.UK, such as speeches, consultations, videos, statistics, guidance.
- Transactional services. For example, MTDfB, CDS, Tax Credit Calculator, PTA, short forms like Send your Aggregates Levy Return.
- Non GOV.UK websites such as uktradeinfo.com, campaign websites, Adjudicator’s Office website.
- Internal website new or substantially changed after 23 September 2019. This includes HMRC’s intranet, SAP services such as Online HR and casework user interfaces.
- New websites published after 22 September 2018 must comply by 23 September 2019.
- Existing websites created before 22 September 2018 must comply by 23 September 2020.
- Mobile applications must comply by 22 June 2021.
There will be monitoring, reporting and enforcement across Government Departments. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will act as the enforcement body.
We also have a legal obligation under the Equality Act 2010 to make everything inclusive and risk legal challenge if we do not.
We have been working with representatives responsible for the development and delivery of content and digital services to understand the current position and the barriers preventing content and services from being accessible from the start. The representatives are listed in the contact us section below.
The following outlines some of the activities we are working on.
- Raising awareness across senior leaders in HMRC.
- Working with teams to ensure new mobile apps and forms will be accessible
- Working to ensure new websites and mobile apps don’t go live without meeting the EU directive.
- Producing an estimate of cost and resources needed to bring existing content and services into compliance.
- Working with GDS to identify and improve the design system components and patterns that fail WCAG 2.1 AA.
- Working towards publishing in HTML by default.
- Converting existing PDF forms to HTML GForms if the form is still needed.
- Creating accessibility statement templates to be used within HMRC.
Everyone has a part to play in ensuring that our content and digital services are accessible. Contact the working group leadership team or the representative for the content type you want to know more about.
If you are not directly involved in the development of digital services or websites, you still have a part to play in improving the accessibility of content that we create and share. Take a bit of time to check how accessible your documents are.
Microsoft Office offers some useful tips on how to improve their accessibility - Creating accessible documents using Office 365 products from Microsoft (web)
If you don’t yet have Office 365 take a look at:
- creating accessible Excel documents from Microsoft (web)
- creating accessible Word documents from Microsoft (web)
- creating accessible PowerPoint documents from Microsoft (web)
(Digital Inclusion and Standards and Culture team)
(Digital Inclusion and Standards and Culture team)
- Chris Moore (Internal services)
- Angela Cockburn (External services)
- ADC robotics team - Claire Davison
- Case management applications and PEGA - Justin Williams
- Classic (legacy) services and associated internal facing helpdesks - Wendy Parkes and Katherine Badger
- Corporate Services (SAP payments, payroll, finance, HR online, parts of intranet) - Martin Kinsella and Steven Howley
- Design - Beth Noble and Tim Bryan
- Digital Forms and G Forms - Michelle Loan, Oliver Lewis and Guy Robinson
- GOV.UK team - James Low and Gill Sutton
- Internal assistive technology team - Paul Daly
- Intranet team - Toby West and Gary Fleming
- Live Services - All live services led by Sam Allin, local delivery managers are Martin Swaffield (Newcastle) and Chanelle Leher (Worthing)
- Product Manager Mobile Apps - Femke Hawksworth
- Service Manager community - Angela Hewitson and Gary Scott
- uktradeinfo website - Mark Ghazarian
- VOA - Christopher Smith and Lisa Sevell