All public services must be accessible, no matter what the medium being used or the skills or language preferences of the user.
Your service must also work seamlessly whether a person uses your website, calls the contact centre, or visits a community hub in person.
Being “easy to use” ensures that a resident can complete their task quickly and without frustration, regardless of how they choose to get in touch.
What this looks like
- Meeting accessibility standards and testing with residents using various assistive technologies
- Ensure terminology and guidance are identical on the website, phone, and in person
- Providing support and help for residents with low digital confidence.
- Use simple, jargon-free language that is easy for all residents to understand.
- Offer non-digital alternatives that deliver the same quality of outcome for everyone.
The questions
- Does the work meet WCAG 2.2 standards and use simple, jargon-free language that everyone can understand?
- Is the information, guidance, and terminology exactly the same across the website, phone, and face-to-face channels?
- Are there clear help routes for those with low digital confidence, and do offline alternatives deliver the same quality outcome?
How this links back to the Government Service Standard
This checklist point broadly maps across to:
- 3. Provide a joined up experience across all channels
- 4. Make the service simple to use
- 5. Make sure everyone can use the service
Full guidance notes
For local authorities, accessibility is not a niche requirement or a “nice-to-have” feature; it is a fundamental democratic obligation. Public services must be usable by everyone, regardless of their physical or cognitive abilities, technical confidence, or the channel they choose to use.
This guide outlines five core pillars for designing inclusive services that ensure no resident is left behind in a “digital-first” world.
1. Accessible Design: Beyond Technical Compliance
In the UK, meeting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA is a legal requirement for public sector bodies. However, true accessibility means moving beyond automated checklists to ensure a service is genuinely usable by people with diverse needs.
1.1 Technical Standards and Real-World Use
Automated tools are excellent for catching “hard” errors (like missing image alt-text), but they cannot tell you if a service is easy to navigate. A page might be technically compliant but still prove impossible for a user with a cognitive impairment or high anxiety to complete.
1.2 In Practice
- Assistive Technology Testing: Regularly test your digital services with real users who rely on screen readers (like JAWS or NVDA), screen magnifiers, or voice-control software.
- Keyboard-Only Navigation: Ensure that every interaction—from filling in a form to clicking a ‘Submit’ button—can be done using only a keyboard.
- Visual Clarity: Maintain high colour contrast and ensure that information is never conveyed through colour alone (e.g., using only a red border to show an error without a text label).
2. Unified Information: Consistency Across Touchpoints
Residents do not see the council as a collection of separate departments; they see a single organisation. If the information they receive on the website contradicts what they are told over the phone, the service becomes inaccessible due to confusion and a loss of trust.
2.1 The ‘Single Source of Truth’
Fragmented information creates a “cognitive tax” that disproportionately affects users under stress or those with learning disabilities. Consistency across channels ensures that the resident feels confident they are doing the right thing.
2.2 In Practice
- Terminology Alignment: Use the exact same names for services and forms across your website, phone scripts, and paper letters.
- Omni-channel Content: Ensure that if a policy change occurs, the update is pushed to the contact centre and the front desk at the same time as the website.
- Eliminating Jargon: Work with subject matter experts to ensure that internal “council-speak” (e.g., “blue-badge eligibility criteria”) is translated into resident-friendly terms consistently across all platforms.
3. Providing Support and Help for Residents with Low Digital Confidence
“Digital-first” must never mean “digital-only.” A significant portion of the community may have the physical ability to use a computer but lack the confidence or fear making a mistake that could impact their benefits, housing, or taxes.
3.1 Building a Safety Net
Accessibility in this context means providing the reassurance and human support necessary to help a resident navigate a digital process, rather than forcing them to struggle alone.
3.2 In Practice
- Assisted Digital Routes: Clearly signpost phone numbers or face-to-face locations directly on digital forms so users know where to turn if they get stuck.
- “Save and Continue”: Allow residents to save their progress online so they can seek help from a friend, family member, or council officer to complete the task later.
- Mediated Access: Empower frontline staff to “co-browse” or fill in forms on behalf of a resident, ensuring the data enters the same efficient digital system while providing a human interface.
4. Plain English: Clarity for All
The complexity of local government language is one of the biggest barriers to accessibility. The average reading age in the UK is that of a 9-to-11-year-old. If your service requires a university degree to understand, it is not accessible.
4.1 Reducing Cognitive Load
Simple language benefits everyone, but it is essential for neurodivergent users, people in crisis, or those for whom English is a second language. Clear communication reduces the number of phone calls to the council because residents can actually self-serve.
4.2 In Practice
- Active Voice: Use direct instructions like “Pay your Council Tax” instead of “The payment of Council Tax should be initiated.”
- Short Sentences: Aim for sentences of 15–20 words and use clear, descriptive headings to break up text.
- Testing for Understanding: If a user has to read a sentence twice to understand what they need to do, the content needs to be simplified.
5. Equitable Offline Routes: Maintaining Quality
For some residents, a digital-only service is a total barrier. Whether due to severe disability, lack of internet access, or age, these users must receive a service that is of equal quality to the digital version.
5.1 Parity of Outcome
Equity does not mean the offline and online routes are identical, but it does mean they must lead to the same outcome with a similar level of effort and respect for the user’s time.
5.2 In Practice
- Process Fairness: Ensure that paper applications are not relegated to the bottom of a pile. Back-office systems should handle paper data as efficiently as digital data.
- Physical Accessibility: Ensure that any face-to-face contact points are physically accessible, including ramps, hearing loops, and quiet spaces for sensitive conversations.
- Mirroring Logic: Design paper forms to follow the same logical flow as the digital service to ensure that staff can easily help residents move between the two if needed.