What accessible content is

Digital accessibility and the law

Public sector digital services must consider people’s access needs when designing, building and delivering websites, mobile apps and online content.

This applies to all digital services provided by Nottinghamshire County Council, including those developed, commissioned or managed by external suppliers.

Key laws and regulations

Public sector digital services must meet the requirements of:

These laws apply to both:

public‑facing websites and mobile apps
staff‑only sites, such as the intranet or SharePoint

What the law requires

To meet legal accessibility requirements, we must take reasonable steps to ensure that:

all content we create or commission is accessible
technical components work correctly with assistive technologies

This includes content and services provided by third parties on the council’s behalf.

Accessibility standards we follow

We follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to provide a consistent, practical way of meeting accessibility requirements across websites and digital content.

WCAG is an internationally recognised standard for making content:

navigable
readable
understandable
compatible with assistive technologies, browsers and devices

Accessibility goes beyond legal compliance

Meeting legal accessibility requirements is essential, but it does not guarantee that content works well for everyone in practice.

To better meet people’s needs, and improve how services work for real people, we also work to:

understand users and their accessibility needs
design services to solve the whole problem
make services simple and easy to use
provide a joined‑up experience across channels
use tools and technology that support accessibility
test services with users
review and improve content regularly

Monitoring and enforcement

The Government Digital Service (GDS) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) monitor public sector websites and mobile apps to check compliance with accessibility requirements.