Post by Roland, Corporate Digital Team, Welsh Government
Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gwmraeg
Find out about our commitment to accessibility in this introduction to our approach on GOV.WALES.
Why accessibility matters
Accessibility is about ensuring as many people as possible can access our online information and services.
Providing accessible content and services:
- improves readability and usability for everyone, which supports improved policy outcomes
- meets the needs of people relying on assistive technologies like screen readers, magnifiers or speech recognition tools
- fits with our values around equality and the social model of disability
- demonstrates our commitment to excellent public services
It’s also the law and a Programme for Government priority to eliminate inequality.
GOV.WALES accessibility standards
The GOV.WALES accessibility standards state that products must:
- meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA guidelines
- be tested
- publish an accessibility statement
We own the GOV.WALES standards and support the colleagues who own services and microsites to apply them. We also directly manage the platform for the core site at www.gov.wales and you can read about our approach to accessibility testing.
Our standards comply with and complement the wider context across the whole public sector, for example:
- standard 5, make sure everyone can use the service, of the digital service standard for Wales from the Centre for Digital Public Services
- accessibility requirements are defined as law in The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (on legislation.gov.uk)
Applying the accessibility standards
To help product teams meet the WCAG 2.2 guidelines, we ensure the GOV.WALES standards comply with them.
For example, WCAG 2.2 says:
- the visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1
To meet this, we ensure the GOV.WALES Global Experience Language (GEL) design system uses a sufficient contrast ratio. This saves product teams time, while ensuring a consistent user experience which strengthens our brand and builds trust.
We also incorporate WCAG 2.2 content standards in our writing guidance. This means content producers do not need to refer to the full WCAG 2.2 guidance and this:
- saves time, for example they do not need to understand text contrast ratio as this is already managed by the GOV.WALES GEL design system
- enables us to present related guidance not part of WCAG 2.2 in the same place, for example explain page titles should also be no more than 65 characters and search optimised
Get in touch
If you’d like to know more or share your ideas, comment on this post or email us at digital@gov.wales.