The States of Guernsey and the Guernsey Disability Alliance both adopted WCAG 2.1 AA as their accessibility benchmark; the government's own 2021 audit found MyGov only 'partially compliant', naming specific colour-contrast and ARIA-landmark failures.
Details
Promoter
States of Guernsey (gov.gg / MyGov) & Guernsey Disability Alliance
Period
2021–present
Keywords
public sector, digital accessibility, disability rights, civil society
Context
The States of Guernsey adopted WCAG 2.1 Level AA as its target accessibility standard for government digital services, including gov.gg and the MyGov transactional portal, and the Guernsey Disability Alliance applies the same benchmark to its own "Access For All" site and advocacy work.
Objectives
To give Guernsey's government and disability sector a shared, named accessibility benchmark, and to be transparent — via a public accessibility statement — about where the government's own flagship transactional portal still falls short.
Activities
The government's accessibility statement for MyGov was tested in February 2021 using SiteImprove and WAVE.
Results
The statement discloses that MyGov is only "partially compliant" with WCAG 2.1 AA, naming specific unmet criteria: insufficient colour contrast in places (1.4.3 and 1.4.11) and missing ARIA landmarks for assistive-technology navigation (1.3.1). No subsequent published re-audit was found updating MyGov's compliance status beyond the 2021 statement.
Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
States of Guernsey digital services team (gov.gg / MyGov), Guernsey Disability Alliance running its own "Access For All" accessibility benchmark
Conditions for success
Adopting a single named standard (WCAG 2.1 AA) shared between government and civil society so both are measured against the same bar
Using automated testing tools (SiteImprove, WAVE) to produce a documented, criterion-level accessibility statement rather than a vague compliance claim
An independent civil-society reference point (Guernsey Disability Alliance) applying the same benchmark to hold government accountable
Common failure modes
The government's own core transactional portal (MyGov) was only "partially compliant" at last public disclosure, with named, unresolved contrast and ARIA-landmark gaps
No published re-audit was found after February 2021, so the current compliance status cannot be confirmed
Commonly funded by
National / regional programmes
Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.
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Data sources
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
