Overview
Most local authorities don’t build their own websites. So, meeting Digital Accessibility legislation often means relying on the agencies, component software and contractors who create their websites and apps to get accessibility right.
Getting these third-parties to deliver on the requirements of PSBAR (the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018), is one of the key challenges faced by local authorities, as found by the Central Digital and Data Office team monitoring the regulations.
When this isn’t discussed when kicking off website projects, it’s difficult to remedy if accessibility errors are found later, as this quote from a local authority in CDDO’s December 2021 report describes:
“To be honest the audit report from CDDO had no impact on anyone within the organisation other than the Communications Team. We found it quite difficult to resolve changes as they were structural/developer issues that only our provider could amend and found explaining the importance of these changes to them very challenging.”
For councils, the most important thing they may need to learn about accessibility is not how to code a website right, but how to ensure that the organisations they ask to create their sites are able to be trusted to deliver an accessible experience, and that their procurement process is watertight in requiring them to do that.
We often see:
- RFPs and contracts missing mentioning accessibility requirements – which puts the risk back on the local authority
- Vendors and suppliers not truly understanding the impact of accessibility on their design, build and testing
- Costly rework, audits, or work-arounds to address issues that were not discussed at the start
In this webinar we will look at:
- 5 key questions that can reduce your risk, control your costs, and ensure your suppliers truly understand their obligations
- What evidence to look out for from your suppliers in their responses to your questions
And you can ask me your questions, based on your experience & challenges with procuring and working with suppliers to deliver accessible sites and apps.