What and why are the WCAG

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) co-produced between web users, web developers and web writers. The goal is to provide a single shared standard for web content accessibility which individuals, organisations, and governments can use.

The WCAG documents explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities.

Web “content” generally refers to the information in a web page or web application, including:

• natural information such as text, images, and sounds
• HTML, CSS and Javascript code that defines structure and presentation

Who cares?

You do.

Any public body websites published since September 2018 will need an accessibility statement by September 2019, while older websites have until 2020 to comply.

This is regulated by law under The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (opens in new tab) (opens in a new tab).

Not my problem.

If you're responsible for any of the content on your Local Offer, you must make sure that text, images and sounds are accessible.

Of course, the people who provide your system (for example your local council, Open Objects, Jadu) have to make sure the code works well too.

How do I do it?

Let's get started.