Making a plan to fix problems

Make a plan to fix any accessibility problems

Once you’ve identified any problems in your sample, you need to make a plan to fix these across the whole website or mobile app.

This involves talking to people who know how long things will take to fix and how difficult each fix might be.

Talk to:

  • suppliers, about the technology behind your website
  • developers who know about the code for your website
  • content editors, publishers or people who edit the text and documents on your website

Think about the impact of each thing you’re fixing to help you prioritise. For example, it’s probably more benefit to your users that essential services meet accessibility standards than out-of-date campaigns.

Build accessibility improvements into your processes, budgeting and long term planning.

Create a roadmap

When you’ve worked out your priorities, it helps to make a high level plan or roadmap to show how you’ll meet accessibility standards.

Plan for opportunities to improve the accessibility of your website or mobile app. For example, if you’re appointing a new supplier or making changes to a section of your website.

Things you might not need to fix

You do not need to fix the following types of content because they’re exempt from the accessibility regulations:

  • pre-recorded audio and video published before 23 September 2020
  • live audio and video
  • heritage collections like scanned manuscripts
  • PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 - unless users need them to use a service, for example a form that lets you request school meal preferences
  • maps - but you’ll need to provide essential information in an accessible format like an address
  • third party content that’s under someone else’s control if you did not pay for it or develop it yourself - for example, social media ‘like’ buttons
  • content on intranets or extranets published before 23 September 2019 (unless you make a major revision after that date)
  • archived websites if they’re not needed for services your organisation provides and they are not updated

Even though you might not need to fix these things, it’s better for all users if you can fix any of them to help more disabled people use your website.

If you do not fix things in the list, you’ll need to explain in your accessibility statement that you’ve not made things like this accessible because they are exempt.