What is WCAG?
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are a standard of internationally recognised guidelines which define how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities and older people with changing abilities due to aging.
What are conformance levels in WCAG?
The Department of Education, Information and Technologies Branch, has endorsed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 (Levels A and AA compliance) for all websites, web applications and mobile applications owned and/or operated by the department, under any domain, to be launched within the Department of Education environment. This includes external (public-facing or private) and internal (closed community) sites.
Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, agencies must ensure that people with disabilities have the same fundamental rights to access information and services as others in the community. Furthermore, in 2008, the Australian Government ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which specifically recognises (under Articles 9 and 21) that access to information, communications and services (including the internet) is a human right.
Web Content Accessibility Guideline reviews
As part of the Production Readiness Certification (PRC) process, the department’s Web and Digital Production (WDP) team performs WCAG reviews on websites, courses, applications and Invitation to Offer (ITO) / Request for Quote (RFQ) products to assess their readiness before being made available for use.
Do I need to request a review?
You may need a review if you answer yes to any of these questions:
- Is the product going through Production Readiness Certificate (PRC) process?
- Is the product shortlisted for ITO/RFQ process?
- Is the course or internal site being published to the public?
WCAG compliance is a requirement for the department and for any products that are used by the department.
Reviews or abridged assessments are required when products are part of the PRC or products are part of the ITO/RFQ panel.
If you are unsure if you require a review, please email WebAccessibility.WDP@qed.qld.gov.au to determine your eligibility.
How often do I need a review done?
As part of the review process, any faults identified will require remediation timelines from the client. When these remediation timelines are approaching, WDP will contact the client to review the product again to ensure that these targeted fixes have been applied correctly.
If a product is requiring a PRC as part of a new deployment or a large software upgrade, an accessibility review will need to be performed.
When an ITO is at the point where offerors are shortlisted, these products will require an abridged WCAG assessment.
If you are uncertain whether you need a review performed, please email WebAccessibility.WDP@qed.qld.gov.au.
Will I receive a report of the review?
Yes. If a full WCAG review is performed, you will receive an accessibility report in the form of a spreadsheet.
If an abridged WCAG assessment has been performed, you will receive a remediation plan.