NHS Digital has published guidance on how healthcare organisations meet the demands of new accessibility standards for digital services.
It has expanded its service manual to include guidance beyond that published in February, aiming to make it more comprehensive.
This comes in response to the need for existing websites to comply with accessibility standards from the Government Digital Service by September of next year and for apps to do so by June 2021.
The new version of the service manual includes core guidance on three topics: what NHS services need to do about accessibility; how to make digital services accessible; and getting started.
The following six sections are labelled by activity rather than roles, taking in product and delivery, user research, producing content, design, development and testing.
Feedback process
In a blogpost the lead product manager for the service manual, Ian Roddis, says NHS Digital is aiming to improve it with user feedback.
“All NHS bodies, from large NHS trusts to GP practice sites, need to be accessible and that will make a big difference for all the people with short and long term access needs who use NHS services,” he says.
Image by Andy Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0 through flickr
