Once you’ve identified any issues with your website, service or app, you’ll need to make and document a plan for fixing these. How you fix issues will depend on your platform.
Some issues may be fairly straightforward to fix on your own or with the help of other website editors, eg missing alt text on images or link text. For other elements, you may need to talk to your developers or suppliers in order to understand what might be addressed and how. It may be helpful to divide issues into those you or editors can manage and those that will need a webmaster or developer to look at. You may also be able to prioritise some 'quick wins', eg issues that can be fixed easily but will have a larger impact or affect a large number of pages.
There are certain elements that are exempt from the new Public Sector Accessibility Regulations:
- pre-recorded audio and video published before 23 September 2020
- live audio and video
- heritage collections like scanned manuscripts
- PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 - unless users need them to use a service
- maps - but you’ll need to provide essential information in an accessible format like an address
- third party content that’s under someone else’s control if you did not pay for it or develop it yourself - for example, social media ‘like’ buttons
- content on intranets or extranets published before 23 September 2019 (unless you make a major revision after that date)
- archived websites if they’re not needed for services your organisation provides and they are not updated
However, it’s better for all users if you can fix these elements or provide information in alternative formats to help more people use your website.
Disproportionate burden
The regulations provide an exception for disproportionate burden in the case that the impact of meeting the regulations is more than an organisation can cope with.
Please note that lack of time or knowledge cannot be used as a reason to claim disproportionate burden, and you cannot argue that making things accessible is a disproportionate burden because you’ve not given the work priority.
If you do think there’s a case for disproportionate burden around your website or service (or part of it), you’ll first need to carry out an assessment so that you can understand what changes would need to be made in order to meet the regulations and what the impact would be.
For more information, please see the GDS guidance on disproportionate burden and Jisc’s further explanation of disproportionate burden.