Who this information is for

Web accessibility legislation is relevant to all editors and managers of the University's:

websites (which includes web applications)
mobile apps

It may also be helpful for those with a general interest in web accessibility.

However, the degree to which you need to become familiar with legislative details will depend on your role.

Editors of websites hosted on University-supported platforms

If you edit a website hosted on a University-supported web editing platform, then this legislative information constitutes background reading which will help you understand why certain rules are necessary. While in this role, you will not be involved in the creation or editing of accessibility statements, but you may find the section on scope and exemptions useful.

However, none of it is required reading in order to understand the practical training, so you can omit this reading entirely and focus solely on the practical training if you prefer.

Mobile app roles

If you're involved in the procurement, management or creation of mobile apps then you will need to become familiar with web accessibility legislation.

This website is primarily focused on the legislation and regulations pertaining to websites, so although the information here may give you something of an overview, it is not designed for those working with mobile apps, which use different code and have slightly different requirements.

As a general overview:

the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA) and the Equality Act 2010 apply to all of the University's mobile apps.
mobile apps for use by the general public (not specific defined groups like employees or students) are also covered by the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. These regulations are sometimes referred to by their acronym, PSBAR.

Here, the exemption of these specific defined groups is not stated in the original legislation, but is found on the accompanying UK Government webpage on meeting accessibility requirements.

It may be worth bearing in mind, however, that even if your mobile app is for a specific defined group (therefore exempt under PSBAR), if it's also accessible via a web browser, then in that version – as a web application – it will need to be compliant with PSBAR.

You can read more about these pieces of legislation under UK legislation regulations.

Web management roles

If you're involved in any of the following, you'll need to become reasonably familiar with web accessibility legislation:

Editing a stand-alone University website.
The commissioning of third parties to produce websites or web content.
The procurement of desktop applications to create any form of web content.
Creating a database feed for a University website. This means writing the original code (API) that extracts data from a database and the creation of the template that will display that data. It does not refer to the act of simply adding a line of code to a webpage to embed a ready-made feed (this will be covered under the standard practical training for web editors).

If any of these scenarios apply to you, you may find it useful to follow the appropriate framework guidelines for your task, as these will in turn refer you to relevant sections here.

Or, you might find it more useful to read all of the legislative information through once, to get the broad picture, before referring to the appropriate framework guidelines.

The approach you choose can depend on your prefered learning style – the information here will work with either method.

Advanced web management roles

If you're involved in any of the following, you will need to become very familiar with web accessibility legislation:

Managing a web editing platform (content management system).
The procurement of online web editing software (including content management systems).
Procuring, creating or managing a web application. For example, this might be a database that involves:
- users engaging with content via an online interface to enter or retrieve data
  and/or
- data displayed in any form of online feed, whether retrieved:
  - actively (such as via a search enquiry)
    or
  - passively (such as by an embedded feed that automatically displays when the page is loaded).
Please note that this applies whether the web application is displayed publically or via a secure intranet – UK web accessibility regulations make no distinction between the two environments.

In these cases, reading all of the information in this section is recommended.