Town and parish councils are public sector bodies, which means their websites and digital tools fall under the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018. In practice that means meeting the WCAG 2.2 Level AA standard and publishing an accessibility statement. It’s a legal duty, not a nice-to-have — and it’s one small councils often don’t realise applies to them.

What the law actually requires

Two things:

  1. Meet WCAG 2.2 AA — your website and any digital service (booking forms, report forms, documents) should be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust for disabled users. That covers keyboard navigation, colour contrast, text alternatives for images, properly labelled forms, and content that works with screen readers.
  2. Publish an accessibility statement — a specific, honest statement saying how accessible the site is, listing anything that isn’t yet compliant, and giving people a way to report problems and request information in another format.

The failures that catch councils out

  • Inaccessible PDFs. Scanned minutes and agendas that are images, not real text, are invisible to screen readers.
  • Forms without labels. A “report a problem” or booking form where fields aren’t programmatically labelled.
  • Poor contrast and keyboard traps. Low-contrast text, or menus and controls that can’t be reached without a mouse.
  • No (or copied) accessibility statement. A missing statement is itself a breach; a generic copied one that doesn’t reflect the actual site is almost as bad.

Why it’s worth getting right

Beyond the legal duty, accessibility is about residents being able to use their council’s services — reporting a problem, booking a hall, reading a decision. And accessible, well-structured pages are also easier for search engines and AI assistants to read, so compliance and findability pull in the same direction.

Built in, not bolted on

How Town Desk helps

The hard part is that accessibility has to be designed in — retrofitting it onto an old site or a third-party form is painful. Town Desk is built to WCAG 2.2 AA from the ground up — keyboard-friendly, high-contrast and screen-reader ready, including the public report and booking forms residents use — with an accessibility statement included as standard. So the council meets its duty without a separate project.

See the product, or book a demo.

General information for UK town & parish councils, not legal advice. For the authoritative requirements see the accessibility regulations guidance on GOV.UK and the W3C WCAG 2.2 standard.