Warning "Services built using the prototype kit, must not be presented for audits. They are not intended for production quality products or services."

Testing and templates

As part of the Service Standard, you are required to have an accessibility audit completed before moving to public beta phase.

You should have your service audited by a professional accessibility auditor, such as an external audit provider or the DfE internal accessibility team.

The audit should satisfy the audit requirements in the GOV.UK Service Manual for device and browser combinations.

Before you send the service for an auditor to review, you can find common issues by using this Trello template.

You can also use the spreadsheet to test against the full WCAG guidelines as a checklist.

Prepare a requirements brief

Audit requirements and reporting should be completed in line with Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM).

You can use the template on the evaluation methodology page to give to auditors outlining the testing requirements. As this is a standard evaulation and reporting approach, they should be familiar with the approach.

You should also tell potential suppliers:

  • where you are in your development cycle
  • if you want to attend any of the testing and the dates you could attend
  • if any part of your service was built by a third party

Contribute to this page on GitHub