Accessibility compliance guides · Europe & UK

UK Equality Act and PSBAR compliance

The UK does not have a single “web accessibility act.” It has something wider. The Equality Act 2010 covers every service provider. The public sector regulations add a technical standard and active monitoring.

• Private and non-profit services: Equality Act 2010 — anticipatory reasonable adjustments, no employee threshold
• Public sector: PSBAR 2018, monitored against WCAG 2.2 Level AA
• Monitor: Government Digital Service, with enforcement through EHRC or ECNI

What it is

The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination against disabled people by anyone providing services to the public. There is no employee-count or turnover threshold. The duty to make reasonable adjustments is anticipatory: you plan for disabled users before someone is excluded, not after a complaint. Courts and the Equality and Human Rights Commission treat websites and apps as services.

The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 — PSBAR — require public sector bodies to meet an accessibility requirement, publish an accessibility statement in the mandated format, and provide accessible alternatives on request. Deadlines for existing sites and apps completed in 2021. UK monitoring has used WCAG 2.2 Level AA since October 2024.

The Government Digital Service monitors public sector sites, publishes findings, and refers persistent failures to the EHRC, or to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. Inaccurate accessibility statements are a common monitoring finding.

The UK is not bound by the European Accessibility Act. UK businesses that sell to EU consumers still are. A single WCAG 2.2 AA target covers the strictest reading of both.

Who needs to comply

PSBAR is the public sector. The Equality Act is everyone who provides a service.

• Any service provider. Shops, banks, universities, landlords of public services, charities, and non-UK companies serving UK customers. The reasonable-adjustment duty does not wait for a headcount.
• Public sector bodies. Government departments, councils, NHS organizations, and many other public bodies under PSBAR, including an accessibility statement and WCAG 2.2 AA as the monitoring benchmark.
• Vendors to the public sector. Procurement passes the PSBAR duty into the contract. A council cannot meet the regulations with a portal its supplier left inaccessible.

Timeline

The Equality Act duty is current. PSBAR deadlines for the original stock of sites have passed.

• 2010. Equality Act introduces the anticipatory reasonable-adjustment duty for service providers.
• 2018, completed by 2021. PSBAR phases in WCAG-based requirements and accessibility statements for public sector websites and apps.
• October 2024. UK public sector monitoring moves to WCAG 2.2 Level AA.
• Ongoing. GDS monitoring and EHRC enforcement. Equality Act claims and settlements continue on their own timeline.

What the rule requires

Public bodies have a checklist. Everyone else has a duty that is tested when a person cannot use the service.

• WCAG 2.2 AA. The current UK monitoring benchmark, and a superset of 2.1 AA. We audit to 2.2 AA for UK-facing sites.
• A true accessibility statement. PSBAR statements follow a mandated format: non-compliant content, alternatives, and a contact route. A statement that does not match the site is a finding of its own.
• Anticipatory adjustments. For Equality Act services: an audit trail of what you considered and fixed, before a complaint, is the practical defence.
• Journeys that gate the service. Registration, booking, checkout, and account management. Mobile screen readers are part of GDS-style testing, so they are part of ours.

How we help

We help UK public bodies keep the statement honest, and help service providers show they planned for disabled users.

• An audit against WCAG 2.2 AA, which satisfies PSBAR monitoring and the practical Equality Act benchmark.
• An accessibility statement written from the audit, in the shape public sector monitoring expects when PSBAR applies.
• Manual testing with NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver, plus keyboard-only use and browser zoom. The failures these rules care about are often invisible to an automated scan.
• Remediation in your production code by our developers, so the fix lives in the product and not only in a report.
• An accessibility statement and, where a buyer or regulator expects one, a VPAT-based Accessibility Conformance Report grounded in the audit.
• Training for the people who publish pages, documents, and campaigns after the audit.
• A retest after major releases, so a later deploy does not quietly undo the work.

Web accessibility audit and remediation

Our process

1. Confirm what applies to you. We separate PSBAR public sector duties from Equality Act service-provider duties, and note any EU exposure if you also sell to EU consumers.
2. Audit the live experience. We review the pages, flows, documents, and apps people actually use, with assistive technologies as well as automated checks, and map each finding to the standard this rule points to.
3. Fix the barriers that block access. Our developers remediate structure, keyboard access, forms, contrast, names, and media in your codebase, starting with the journeys that gate a service.
4. Document what was tested. You receive the findings, what we fixed, and the statement or conformance report your team, counsel, or procurement office needs on file.
5. Keep it from slipping. We train publishers and retest after significant releases so new content does not reopen the same gaps.

Longer background: UK web accessibility law.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Equality Act name WCAG?

No. It requires reasonable adjustments, in advance. WCAG 2.2 AA is the benchmark advisers, GDS, and settlements use when they ask whether the adjustment was reasonable.

We are a small shop. Are we exempt?

Not on headcount. The Equality Act has no employee threshold for service providers. What is “reasonable” can take resources into account. An inaccessible checkout on a modern platform is hard to defend.

What does GDS actually check?

Public sector sites against the accessibility requirement, and whether the accessibility statement is accurate. Inaccurate statements are a frequent finding. We test the site and then write the statement from those results.

We left the EU. Can we ignore the EAA?

The UK is not bound by the EAA. If you sell covered services to EU consumers, the EAA still applies to that activity. If EU companies sell to UK customers, the Equality Act applies to them. We set the target at WCAG 2.2 AA so both sides are covered.

Related guides

• European Accessibility Act
• EN 301 549
• ADA Title II & III

This page is general information from Peradeo Technologies Inc., not legal advice.

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