People will accessibility needs are still being let down by public sector websites.
New research from NEC Digital shows that while 82 percent of public sector website have fewer accessibility issues than the average page, barriers remain. People with vision-related access needs are still facing an average of 9.1 accessibility errors on public sector website pages, despite regulations to reduce this.
2018 regulations require public sector bodies to make their website or mobile app accessible, however, the study reveals that many of them still have barriers to accessibility, particularly issues that would exclude individuals reliant on screen readers from accessing the information on the page as easily as they could.
Almost nine million people in the UK have accessibility needs, and around three million people are colourblind, which can make accessing digital services more difficult. Accessibility is especially important when it comes to public sector and healthcare websites, when visitors may be in search of vital information.
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The impact of public sector web accessibility on users with visual impairments report reveals that while public sector web pages had 5.6 times fewer accessibility errors than the average webpage, many pages still had errors and colour contrast issues that could impact low-vision users.
Experts at NEC Digital analysed more than 1,300 websites across local authorities, social housing and healthcare to assess how accessible these websites were for a user initially trying to access the site. Looking at the number of errors, contrast errors and accessibility alerts on the page, each website was assigned an ‘accessibility score’ out of 10. The higher the score, the more accessible the page. The average ‘accessibility score’ of the analysed public sector websites was 5.83.
Key findings
- Public sector pages had an average of 9.1 detectable accessibility errors and 8.0 contrast errors, 5.6 times lower than the web average
- Local council websites only had an average of 2.0 errors and 1.7 contrast errors
- The NHS website pages analysed had an average of 5.4 accessibility errors
- Private hospital websites had 3.6 times as many errors as their NHS counterparts, and more than four times as many contrast errors
- Of the public sectors analysed, housing association pages performed the worst, with an average of 13.2 errors, potentially leading to inaccessible housing support and making it more difficult to reach out for help with accommodation issues
- Almost three-quarters of the pages analysed had at least one colour contrast issue that could impact low-vision users
In light of these findings, NEC Digital has called for continued government focus on enhancing web accessibility across the public sector, which may include increased investment in this area or tighter regulations.
“Bridging the accessibility gap is both a legal requirement and a moral duty, improving the daily experience of individuals with accessibility needs,” it noted.
