Accessibility
Getting started with accessibility
Equal access for everyone.
What is accessibility?
Accessibility is making sure that all our colleagues and customers have equal access to our digital products and services. This is achieved by designing and building to industry standards which maintains quality and supports assistive technologies.
This guide links out to resources to help you design, build, write and test for accessibility.
An introduction
If you're new to accessibility, check out these guides from W3C:
Which standards do we follow?
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
WCAG is the international shared standard for web accessibility. Newskit core components are tested to a WCAG 2.1 Level AA standard.
WCAG 2.1WAI ARIA
ARIA is a set of attributes you can add to HTML elements to make web content accessible to users with disabilities who use assistive technologies.
WAI ARIANews UK Polices
Policies and guidelines (internal link)
Which laws must we comply with?
In the UK
UK Equality Act protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. It covers the provision of digital services and therefore accessibility.
UK Equality Act on provision of services
In the US
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in everyday activities.
The Americans with Disabilities Act
What’s next?
Design provides the foundations for accessibility.
Building to WCAG standards maintains quality and supports assistive technologies.