New Report by Public Sector IT Association Highlights Accessibility Issues on Council Websites

July 06, 2020

The latest accessibility testing for local authority websites is released today.

More than 800 UK public sector sites were reviewed by Silktide, in partnership with Socitm Ltd, in the run-up to new Government web accessibility guidelines which come into force on 23 September 2020, for all public sector sites.

Issues arising from the review have ranged from minor to more serious, including sites that are hard to navigate for those with limited vision using a screen reader.

Simon Waters, head of marketing for Silktide, said: “Accessibility isn’t about disability, it’s about inclusivity. We created the Silktide Index to start a conversation around web accessibility in the public sector and help organisations gain insight into their progress towards WCAG 2.1 compliance. We aim to build on this by giving all organisations the opportunity to fully test their sites with Silktide, and work to become more compliant by the September deadline.”

Silktide also produced a ranking list for Soctim members, covering more than 200 websites.

Chantelle Denny, finance and operations director at Socitm, said: “All local authorities should be aware of the Government deadline for changes. Working with Silktide, we are able to show where improvement is needed to bring sites up to the new standard. As Socitm members, councils have access to a number of resources and benefits to help them make sure their site is fit for purpose”.

As part of the wider support for all authorities, Socitm is hosting a free Q&A workshop on 22 July between 1400 – 1500. The free to register event will aim to answer questions about the insights revealed by the recent web accessibility report.

The report produced by Socitm using Silktide’s accessibility reporting data can be found here: https://socitm.net/download/top-five-most-common-accessibility-issues/

Source: SOCITM