Guidance

Sample accessible documents policy

Updated 6 October 2023

Accessible documents at [organisation name]

[Note: This is a sample accessible document policy for a hypothetical organisation publishing PDFs and other non-HTML documents on GOV.UK. It contains sample wording and guidance on what to include.

To create an accessible documents policy for your organisation, go to the ‘Corporate information’ tab in Whitehall Publisher. You’ll need managing editor permissions. Before you publish, add the ‘Corporate information’ tag. Once you’ve published the page, a link will appear on the organisation home page.

Before you start, test a sample of your documents to check how accessible they are. Focus on documents that are essential to users accessing one of your services (like a form that lets parents indicate school meal preferences) no matter when they were published. You should also include non-essential documents (like leaflets) that were published on or after 23 September 2018.

There’s guidance to help you check the accessibility of documents.

Your policy should not cover HTML content published on the main GOV.UK platform, or services hosted on a service.gov.uk subdomain: that will be covered elsewhere.

Do not duplicate information in the main GOV.UK accessibility statement, and do not cover transactional services - just PDFs and other documents uploaded to GOV.UK as attachments.]

This policy explains how accessible the documents [organisation name] publishes on GOV.UK are. It covers PDFs, spreadsheets, presentations and other types of document. It does not cover content published on GOV.UK as HTML: the main GOV.UK accessibility statement will cover that.

Using our documents

[Note: use this section to describe which document types you publish and what disabled users should be able to do with them.]

[Name of organisation] publishes documents in a range of formats, including [summarise the document types the organisation tends to use].

We want as many people as possible to be able to use those documents. For example, when we produce a document we make sure to:

• provide an HTML option where possible
• tag headings and other parts of the document properly, so screen readers can understand the page structure
• make sure we include alt text alongside non-decorative images, so people who cannot see them understand what they’re there for
• avoid using tables, except when we’re presenting data
• write in plain English

How accessible our documents are

[Note: use this section to provide information that a disabled user can act on - for example, it might be helpful to let them know that older documents are unlikely to be accessible, and that it might be better for them to request an alternative format. Try to list issues in order of most impact to least impact.]

New documents we publish and documents you need to download or fill in to access one of the services we provide should be fully accessible.

However, we know that some of our older documents (published before 23 September 2018) are not accessible. For example, some of them:

• are just photocopies and are not marked up in a way that allows screen reader users to understand them
• are not tagged up properly - for example, they do not contain proper headings
• are not written in plain English

This mostly applies to our [describe the types of documents - for example, transparency documents] documents. These types of documents are exempt from the regulations, so we do not currently have any plans to make them accessible.

But if you need to access information in one of these document types, you can contact us and ask for an alternative format.

What to do if you cannot use one of our documents

If you need a document we’ve published in a different format:

• email [email address]
• call [phone number]
• [add any other contact details]

We’ll consider the request and get back to you in [number] days.

Reporting accessibility problems with one of our documents

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of our documents. If you find any problems not listed on this page or you think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: [provide details of how to report these issues to your organisation, and contact details for the unit or person responsible for dealing with these reports].

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

[Note: if your organisation is based in Northern Ireland, refer users who want to complain to the Equalities Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) instead of the EASS and EHRC.]

Technical information about the accessibility of our documents

[Note: this form of wording is legally required, so do not change it.]

[Name of organisation] is committed to making our documents accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

[Note: say that your documents are fully compliant if they all meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard in full. Say that they’re partially compliant if most of them meet the requirements of the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. If most of them do not meet the WCAG 2.2 AA standard, say that they’re not compliant. There’s a legally required form of wording here, so do not change it. The 3 options are as follows.]

The documents [insert department name] publishes are fully compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard.

The documents [insert department name] publishes are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

The documents [insert department name] publishes are not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard. The non-accessible sections are listed below.

[Note: delete the options that do not apply.]

Non accessible content

[Note: if your documents are fully compliant with the WCAG 2.2 AA standard, you can leave the ‘Non accessible content’ section out.

Otherwise, do not change the ’Non accessible content’ heading or the ‘The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons’ sentence - they’re legally required.

Do not change the ‘Non compliance with the accessibility regulations’, ‘Disproportionate burden’ and ‘Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations’ subheadings: they’re also legally required.]

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

[Note: In this subsection, list:

• accessibility problems
• which of the WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria the problem fails on
• when you plan to fix the problem

Do not include any problems where you’re claiming disproportionate burden, or where the problem is outside the scope of the regulations (those should go in the subsections below).]

A few of our documents have diagrams. These images do not have a text alternative, so the information in them is not available to people using a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

We plan to add text alternatives for all diagrams by September 2020. When we publish new documents we’ll make sure our use of diagrams meets accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

[Note: in this subsection list:

• accessibility problems you’re claiming would be a disproportionate burden to fix
• which of the WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria the problem fails on

Bear in mind that something which is a disproportionate burden now will not necessarily be a disproportionate burden forever. If the circumstances change, your ability to claim disproportionate burden may change too.

If you’re not claiming disproportionate burden for anything, leave this subsection out.]

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

[Note: in this subsection list:

• any accessibility problems that fall outside the scope of the accessibility regulations
• which of the WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria the problem fails on

If there are not any problems outside the scope of the accessibility regulations, leave this subsection out.]

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix [example of non-essential document].

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

How we tested our documents

We last tested a sample of our documents on [date]. The test was carried out by [add name of organisation that carried out the test, or indicate that you did your own testing.]

We tested:

• x type of document
• y type of document
• z type of document

[Note: provide a brief explanation of how you decided which documents to test. For example, you might have decided to test a representative sample of all your documents, plus a higher proportion of documents that relate directly to the services you provide. And an even higher proportion of documents that relate directly to services aimed at disabled people.]

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

[Note: provide a brief explanation of what you’re doing to improve accessibility. For example, if you’ve carried out a ‘disproportionate burden’ assessment and decided that making some of your older documents accessible right away would be a disproportionate burden for the organisation, talk about your plans to make them accessible in future.]

[Note: do not change the wording about when the page was prepared.]

This page was prepared on [date when it was first published]. It was last updated on [date when it was last updated].