Sector: public services · Scale: two million citizens a month · Standard: WCAG 2.2 AA
The challenge
The portal failed forty of the sixty success criteria we tested. Citizens using screen readers could not complete the two most common tasks: renewing a licence and booking an appointment.
What we found
- Forms without labels, and error messages announced to no one.
- Colour contrast failures on every call-to-action.
- A carousel that trapped keyboard focus on the home page.
- Status updates rendered as images of text.
What we shipped
- Labelled, error-summarised forms with managed focus.
- A contrast-verified palette applied across all templates.
- A keyboard-operable, pausable carousel with no autoplay.
- Live-region status updates that screen readers announce.
The result
All sixty success criteria passing, verified with JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver, six weeks from first audit to clean re-test. “The re-audit came back clean, and the complaints stopped,” said the agency’s digital lead.