As NES is a public sector organisation It is now mandatory for all new products to be accessible before they go live. This means that there needs to be a consideration for getting an audit and any remediation work that arises from the audit before launch. This requirement is by law for all internal and external products. The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018
Don't leave this to the last minute or after launch!
Please allow for at least a month before release to allow for an audit to be completed and feedback provided.
Accessibility auditing is a manual and automated process for testing a website or application. An audit will test against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard. Audits are usually performed by a member of staff from NES Digital (or contracted company).
An audit will involve a combination of manual and automated techniques to test a product.
For automated testing browsers and software will test the code on a page which will highlight some of the issues such as:
Manual testing will pick up any issues that a user could experience while using the website or application.
Some of the more common ones are:
Once the initial round of testing is complete the auditor will then communicate any issues that they have found with the team.
This should then be factored into the development life cycle for fixing before product launch. After the issues that have been identified have been fixed the auditor will compose an accessibility statement. This should be placed on the website or application's accessibility section.
For an older website or application, the auditor will compose a different accessibility statement. This will provide details of any issues and dates for when remediation work is likely to be carried out.
To request an accessibility audit send a request to support.web@nes.scot.nhs.uk
GOV UK
Getting an accessibility audit
W3.org
Tools