The UK Government Digital Service (GDS) marks the ninth annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) with a series of expert-led webinars and resources for public-sector organisations.
The resources and webinars will run throughout the day and provide additional guidance on improving the accessibility of online public services.
This activity comes just over four months before the compliance date for public-sector websites to meet online accessibility regulations.
By 23 September 2020, all public-sector organisations must align their websites with a set of accessibility criteria and publish a statement outlining how accessible they are.
The criteria includes alternative text to improve the accessibility of images, captions and audio descriptions for video content, and minimum colour contrast ratios for web pages and visual design.
As leaders in this space, GDS are monitoring and reporting on the accessibility of public-sector websites and mobile applications, and enforcing the requirement to publish an accessibility statement on behalf of the Minister for the Cabinet Office.
“Today’s event provides a welcome reminder of the importance of digital accessibility in removing barriers that may otherwise prevent people from accessing online public services.” said Minister of State for the Cabinet Office, Lord Agnew.
Public-sector organisations across the UK are already working to improve the accessibility of their websites ahead of this September’s compliance date.
The recorded webinars will be published to the GDS YouTube channel after the event.
