What to Do When Someone Says Your Website Is Not Accessible

A website accessibility complaint usually arrives as an email, a phone call or a contact form message from someone who could not complete a task on your website. They may have been unable to reach a button with the keyboard, hear a form label through a screen reader or read text once it was enlarged. How the organisation responds in the first few days matters as much as the fix itself, because the person still needs the service and the response becomes part of the record. Handling complaints well sits naturally alongside regular accessibility audits for UK organisations, since one reported barrier often points to others nobody has mentioned yet.

The steps below apply to any organisation that runs a website, although the legal framework behind them is stricter for public sector bodies. They cover the first reply, testing the problem, offering another route to the same information, fixing and recording the barrier and updating the accessibility statement, followed by the law and how to stop the same complaint coming back.

What to Do First When Someone Reports an Accessibility Problem

The first thing to do is reply to the person, confirm that the report has been received and give them another way to get what they came for while the website is checked. Debating whether the website passes a standard at this stage helps nobody, because the person has already explained that something stopped them.

The five steps below form a simple routine that any team can follow, however the report comes in. Each step is covered in more detail in the sections that follow.

Most of the effort sits in steps two and four, but the other three shape how the person experiences the process. A quick, clear reply with a workable alternative settles the immediate need, which gives the team time to fix the cause properly rather than rushing out a patch.

Acknowledge the Complaint and Gather the Details

Acknowledge the complaint quickly, thank the person and ask only for the details needed to find the problem. Keep the reply in plain language and avoid technical terms such as WCAG success criteria, since the person reporting the barrier is under no obligation to know them.

Say what will happen next and when. The GOV.UK page on reporting an accessibility problem on a public sector website tells users that an organisation receiving a report should tell them what action it will take and when, which is a sensible standard for any organisation to meet.

The W3C guidance on contacting organisations about inaccessible websites advises users to describe the page, the problem, the computer and software they use and to include a screenshot. Those are the same details worth asking for when a report arrives without them.

• The web address or a description of the page where the problem happened
• What the person was trying to do when they were stopped
• The device, browser and any assistive technology in use, such as a screen reader or magnifier
• A screenshot or recording if they are able to provide one
• How they would like to be contacted and the format they would like a reply in

Do not make a response depend on the person supplying every item on that list. Some people cannot take a screenshot easily, so a short phone call or a description in their own words is often enough to start testing.

Reproduce the Problem Before Deciding Anything

Reproducing the problem means testing the same page with the same kind of setup the person described, so the team sees the barrier for itself before choosing a fix. Automated checkers are a useful start, but they can miss the barriers people tend to report, such as a confusing focus order or a form error that a screen reader never announces.

The W3C Easy Checks give a starting point that does not need specialist knowledge, although W3C notes that a page can seem to pass them while still having significant barriers. Manual testing with a keyboard, a screen reader and browser zoom then shows how the page behaves for the person who reported it.

Record what happened in each test alongside what should have happened. If the barrier cannot be reproduced, tell the person and ask about their setup rather than closing the report, because the same W3C guidance notes that some problems relate to browser or assistive technology settings rather than the website itself.

Give the Person Another Way to Get What They Needed

While the fix is being worked on, give the person the information or service they were trying to reach in a format they can use. That might mean taking a booking over the phone, sending the content of a PDF as an accessible document or arranging a call to complete an application together.

This step carries legal weight as well as practical sense. Section 20 of the Equality Act 2010 says that where the duty to make reasonable adjustments relates to providing information, the reasonable steps include providing it in an accessible format. The same section stops the organisation from asking the disabled person to pay any of the cost of the adjustment.

For public sector bodies the duty is spelled out in more detail. Regulation 13 of the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 lets anyone notify a public sector body that its website fails the accessibility requirement or request excluded content in an accessible format. The body must then respond within a reasonable period of time.

Fix the Barrier and Keep a Record

Fix the barrier at its source, which is usually a template, a shared component or a content habit rather than the single page that was reported. A missing form label on a contact page is likely to be missing on every form built from the same block, so search for the same pattern across the website before closing the report.

Test the fix with the same method used to reproduce the problem, then tell the person it has gone live and invite them to try again. Their confirmation is the clearest test available, because they found the barrier in the first place.

Keep a simple log of every report. A record of the date received, the page, the barrier, the alternative offered, the fix and the date it went live shows how each complaint was handled if questions are asked later. The log also reveals patterns, such as one plugin or one content type that keeps causing problems, which is useful evidence when deciding what to fix next.

A poor response rarely ends the matter, since the person still cannot use the service and has good reason to take the complaint further. A good one resolves the immediate need and leaves a clear record of what was done and when.

Update Your Accessibility Statement

Update the accessibility statement whenever a reported barrier cannot be fixed straight away, so other visitors know about it and know how to get the content another way. Public sector bodies have a legal duty to publish a statement and keep it under regular review. Other organisations can follow the same format voluntarily, which gives people a clear route to report problems.

Regulation 8 of the 2018 regulations sets out what a public sector statement must include. That covers the content that is not accessible and why, any accessible alternatives, a contact form for reporting failures or requesting excluded content and a link to the enforcement procedure.

The GOV.UK sample accessibility statement includes a feedback and contact section with space to say how many days a request takes to answer. Its enforcement section uses wording that is legally required and must not be changed. Our guide to writing an accessibility statement covers each section in more detail.

What UK Law Says About Website Accessibility Complaints

In the UK, website accessibility complaints fall under the Equality Act 2010 in England, Scotland and Wales and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 in Northern Ireland, with extra rules for public sector bodies. Legal questions about a particular complaint, including whether a claim could follow, belong with a solicitor, so treat what follows as background rather than advice.

Section 29 of the Equality Act 2010 covers anyone providing a service to the public whether it is paid for or not. It applies the duty to make reasonable adjustments to service providers, while the 2018 regulations add specific technical and reporting duties for public sector websites and apps.

The GOV.UK guidance on accessibility requirements for public sector bodies says the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) enforces the requirement in England, Scotland and Wales and the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) enforces it in Northern Ireland. It also says a body that fails the accessibility requirement or fails to respond satisfactorily to a request for an accessible format will be failing to make reasonable adjustments. The commissions can then use powers that include investigations, unlawful act notices and court action.

The same guidance sets out the route a user is expected to follow. They should raise the issue with the organisation first, using the contact details in its accessibility statement, then contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service in England, Scotland and Wales or the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland if they are unhappy with the response. A clear and quick reply at the first stage gives the person every reason to stop there. The wider picture is set out in website accessibility law in the UK.

How to Stop the Same Complaint Coming Back

The way to stop the same complaint coming back is to treat each report as evidence about how the website is built and maintained, then fix the process that let the barrier through. A single report rarely describes the only problem, because other visitors may have met the same barrier and left without saying anything.

An audit against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 at level AA finds the barriers nobody has reported yet. It produces a prioritised list of fixes rather than a single answer to a single complaint. Our guide to what a web accessibility audit tests explains how that list is put together.

Prevention also depends on the people who edit the website every week. Training editors to write alt text, use headings in order and publish accessible documents stops many barriers from appearing after launch. Testing new templates with a keyboard and a screen reader before release catches more of them. The common web accessibility mistakes made on large brand websites show how easily the same problems return without those checks.

Priority Pixels carries out detailed accessibility audits and remediation services, with every audit providing a clear, prioritised action plan for achieving and maintaining compliance. Whoever carries out the work, ask for each finding to be tied to the templates and pages where it appears, so the fixes can be checked against the complaints that started the process.