Everyone who needs your service or website should be able to use it. This includes people with visual, hearing, cognitive or motor impairments, those with learning difficulties, and older people.
Your service must be accessible to users regardless of their digital confidence and access to a digital environment. This includes users in remote areas and users with different devices. For example, Yukon.ca is designed specifically so people in Yukon communities can use and load the pages with lower bandwidth.
Make your content accessible
When planning content, it’s important to make sure it is:
- clear and easy to read;
- inclusive; and
- consistent.
Build your service or website to be accessible
We want as many people as possible to be able to use a service and website. This means you should be able to:
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts; and
- zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen.
For a service, you should also be able to get from the start of the service to the end using:
- just a keyboard;
- a screen reader, for example JAWS or VoiceOver; and
- speech recognition software, for example Siri or Windows Speech Recognition.
For a website, you should also be able to use most of the website with:
- just a keyboard;
- a screen reader, for example JAWS or VoiceOver; and
- speech recognition software, for example Siri or Windows Speech Recognition.
Why is this important?
You must build your service or website to be accessible to meet criteria 9 in the digital service standards.
Check accessibility level
Use AChecker to monitor the accessibility level of a service or website.
We strive for compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, Level AA.
Related guidance
- See how to plan for accessibility in discovery.
- See how to show you are considering accessibility as you develop your prototype (alpha).
- See how to demonstrate accessibility requirements are being met in beta.