The 2025 Practitioners’ Guide introduced a crucial update: Assertion 10 – Digital and Data Compliance. This new requirement places a clear and strengthened focus on how smaller authorities manage their digital presence, data protection, and IT systems.
SALC acknowledges the impact of these changes and is developing guidance to support councils. To assist members, SALC hosted a free webinar on September 29th titled "Getting to Grips with the Latest Website Accessibility Regulations"
The session was led by Mark Tomkins, a leading expert in website accessibility and .gov.uk standards, and the Founding Director of Aubergine.
Key topics covered:
Overview of WCAG 2.2AA: Understanding the key changes in the latest website accessibility guidelines and their implications for councils.
Why Accessibility Matters: The importance of making your website usable for people with disabilities and the legal and ethical reasons behind it.
Practical Publishing Techniques: Best practices for ensuring accessible content, from text readability, documents, page structure to image descriptions and navigation.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them: How to spot and fix common accessibility issues on your website.
Tools for Testing Accessibility: Learn about free and paid tools to help evaluate the accessibility of your content.
Creating an Inclusive User Experience: How to improve your website’s usability for all users, regardless of their abilities or needs.
The session aimed to equip participants with the knowledge and tools needed to ensure their websites comply with the updated WCAG standards and are accessible to all users.
If you were unable to attend, you can catch up by watching the session recording and reviewing the presentation slides.