Accessible communication policy

The Greater London Authority (GLA) has a responsibility to make sure that our communications with the public are carried out in a way that they can use and understand. This is a legal duty, but more importantly, it is the right thing to do.

The Office for Disability Issues in 2011/2 estimated that there are 11.6 million disabled people in Great Britain, of whom 5.7 million are adults of working age.

Digital disability refers to a range of issues, such as vision impairment, hearing impairment, dexterity issues and learning difficulties.

There are also numerous groups of people who do not have a formal disability, who also benefit from inclusive design. For example, the UK has an aging population; with almost 18 million people over 55 years of age, many of whom have digital accessibility needs.

When all physical and mental factors that can impact on how a person interacts with a website are taken into account – arthritis, Repetitive Strain Injury, English not being a person’s first language, even temporary conditions such as a sprained wrist, or situational disabilities such as trying to read a mobile phone on a sunny day with glare on the screen – then inclusive design can make the visitor experience better for almost half of the UK population.

All Londoners should be able to read, watch, understand or use our digital content, regardless of any accessibility needs. It is also an important element of the Mayor’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy to create a fairer, more equal, integrated city where everyone feels welcome.

Documents written after 23 September 2018 must be made accessible by 23 September 2020, by meeting the relevant Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 standards for documents.

Older documents - or any documents that have not been made accessible for whatever reason - should be provided to users in an accessible format on request (see below).

This includes MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF or any other form of written document.

Exemptions

• Documents published before 23 September 2018 do not need to be made accessible, “unless such content is needed for active administrative processes relating to the tasks performed by the public sector body concerned”.
• Online maps and mapping services, as long as essential information is provided in an accessible digital manner.
• Third-party content that is neither funded nor developed by, nor under the control of, the GLA/MOL.
• Content of websites and mobile applications qualifying as archives, meaning that they only contain content that is neither needed for active administrative processes nor updated or edited after 23 September 2019.

Requests for documents in alternative formats and other languages

On website pages where documents can be downloaded, an email link must be provided to allow users to request documents in different formats.

All documents should also have information on how to request the document in an accessible format or another language.

A different format may be braille, easy read or any other format that a person may reasonably request.

All requests must be responded to within five working days.

If a document is produced in an alternative format or translation, it should be published alongside the original on the website, so that it is available to other people.

We are working hard at improving our documents and we are developing new document templates to improve accessibility. We will provide guidance and will be running training courses for staff on creating and testing the accessibility of documents from Spring 2020.

A policy for accessible documents is currently being written to help authors, and will be published by December 2020.

Web content must meet the relevant WCAG 2.1 standards for copy, images and multimedia content.

All new web content added to the website should meet WCAG 2.1 standards by September 2020 at the latest.

It is the responsibility of staff to ensure the content they are producing is meet accessibility standards as far as possible. We will be running training courses on creating accessible web content for authors from Spring 2020, via the GLA content team and external training for PDF accessibility.