ECU website does not comply with legislation – SAS member

The Energy Consents Unit website does not comply with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. All UK public sector government websites are legally required to meet accessibility standards and implement WCAG guidelines (specifically WCAG 2.2 at AA level) to comply with UK public sector accessibility law. This regulation was introduced in 2018 to ensure websites are accessible to people with impaired vision, motor difficulties, cognitive impairments or learning disabilities, as well as those who are deaf or have impaired hearing.

I have had direct experience ensuring public sector websites comply with this legislation, and at a glance it is clear that this website falls short of meeting these requirements. I would be here for days if I was to list them all but a few examples are:

• The colour contrast on the website navigation bar fails accessibility standards.
• Users cannot effectively use the website using a keyboard alone (e.g. tabbing), which is essential for people with motor difficulties.
• Sections of the website cannot be reached using a keyboard, such as the table content listing the applications.
• The tables are poorly designed, making them unusable with screen readers that visually impaired users rely on.
• Images do not have alternative text, which is essential for visually impaired users.
• The search and application display functionality is poorly implemented in terms of HTML semantics; a screen reader user would have no indication of which labels relate to which input fields.
• PDFs uploaded to their website must be accessible or provide a web based version or alternatively provide contact details whereby a user can ask for an accessible version to be produced.
• The forms on the website are not accessible as they are poorly designed by the developer, basic html attributes not applied to bind labels and inputs which are key for accessibility.
• The website is not mobile responsive, thus meaning users need to pinch and scroll to view content. The website is unusable on mobile devices and reads text as it appears very small – this is a huge issue especially since more traffic will come from mobile devices and could restrict a large amount of users from being able to submit requests.

The list could go on and on but overall from an accessibility point of view, the website does not comply with many core accessibility requirements and should have since 2018. As a public sector body forcing users to engage with its website, they should be setting an example rather than failing to meet legal accessibility standards. There is a lot of work to be completed if they wish to comply with the legislation.