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About accessible content

Introduction to accessible content

Accessible content is easier for everyone to use, understand and navigate. It became a legal requirement for public sector websites to be accessible from 23 September 2020.

Read an overview of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)that we must follow.

What accessible content means

The word ‘accessibility’ can have different meanings depending on what you are talking about. When we talk about accessible online content, it means a user can complete an online action in a similar time/effort as someone without a disability. GOV.UK explains more about what accessibility means.

Accessible content is content that has been written and formatted to ensure it can be understood by as many people as possible. This includes people with:

  • Impaired vision
  • Dyslexia
  • Motor difficulties
  • Cognitive impairments or learning disabilities
  • Deafness or impaired hearing

Read more about why accessibility is important (GOV.UK).  

Overview of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are internationally recognised recommendations. The guidelines explain how to improve web accessibility and solve users' problems.

WCAG 2.1 is the latest version of the guidelines. 

Levels of compliance 

There are three levels of compliance within the WCAG 2.1 guidelines:

Level A 

This covers basic accessibility.

Level AA 

It is a legal requirement that Norfolk County Council (NCC) websites meet this level. This is stated in The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No.2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. Meeting this level means our websites are accessible for as many people as reasonably possible. 

Level AAA

This is a higher level of accessibility. WCAG conformance requirements state that level AAA is not possible for some content.

What the WCAG guidelines cover

The guidelines cover areas such as:

  • Colour contrast
  • Correct tagging of images and headings
  • Link text

By fixing these issues, we can:

Further information

Content that must be accessible

The following content must be accessible:

  • Web pages
  • Online PDFs and other documents (such as Word documents, Excel spreadsheets etc). This includes documents published on our public-facing websites, our intranet (myNet) and extranets (such as SharePoint and Microsoft Teams).
  • Online forms
  • Videos
  • Images
  • Text

What's excluded?

PDFs and other document types published online before 23 September 2018 don't need fixing, unless:

  • They're essential to providing our services
  • They are being edited and republished after this date

For example, an application form for free school meals or a reception class place must be fixed. People need these forms to access those services.

It is unnecessary to fix documents like newsletters or minutes. They're not intended to give someone access to our services.

Read things you might not need to fix on GOV.UK

Responsibility for making web content accessible

If you create content, you are responsible for making sure it is accessible.

Staff who commission external organisations to create content on behalf of Norfolk County Council (NCC) are responsible for making sure it is accessible. We recommend linking to our accessible content guidance in the work brief.

For example, you and your service might create or commission:

  • Content that gets uploaded to one of our public-facing websites, our intranet (myNet) or extranets (eg SharePoint, Microsoft Teams)
  • Web pages
  • Video and audio

Read about content that must be accessible.

Always make content accessible, however you choose to share it

We recommend you make sure all content your create or commission is accessible. Even if you do not intend to publish it on our websites. This is because:

  • Accessible content is easier for most people to access and understand
  • People you share your content with might have a disability you do not know about
  • You might need to publish your content online in the future

Further information

How we can help you

We have created step-by-step guides to help you:

  • Create and commission accessible content
  • Check content is accessible

Step-by-step guides

How to make web pages accessible

How to make Word documents accessible

How to make PDFs accessible

How to make video and audio accessible

Accessible Powerpoint presentations and spreadsheets

Read further guidance on how to create accessible content.

Norfolk County Council (NCC) digital customer service team

The NCC digital customer service team checks the documents that are submitted to go on the websites we maintain.

We run accessibility checks on PDFs using Adobe Acrobat Pro accessibility check. This tells us if there's anything wrong with the document. We also do manual checks, as the Adobe Acrobat Pro accessibility check does not cover everything.

We will tell you if you need to fix anything.

For most content, we would expect you to make sure your work is accessible from the start. But if you have a complex digital project or are working with a supplier, NCC staff can contact the digital customer service team (opens in a new window) (opens new window) for advice. Just select the 'something else' option on our online form.