Guidance

Accessibility assessment for historic statistical spreadsheets

Published 8 April 2022

Applies to England

Introduction

Accessibility is vital in ensuring as many people as possible can use the statistical spreadsheets published by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). More specifically, it allows all users to perceive, understand, navigate and interact with the information which is published online. DHSC is fully committed to ensuring all spreadsheets published since September 2021 and all future content is accessible. DHSC is also fully committed to providing accessible versions of any historic spreadsheet on request. More information on DHSC’s approach to accessibility is available in the accessible documents policy.

Accessibility regulations

The accessibility regulations require government departments to ensure that their websites and applications are accessible for users, unless doing so would impose a disproportionate burden. This includes spreadsheets published since 23 September 2018 (subject to specified exclusions), where we have carried out the following assessment.

Assessment

Statistical publications in scope

This assessment considers all historical spreadsheets released by DHSC and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) as official statistics, or alongside statistical publications, including both regular releases and ad hoc supplementary statistical data releases (note this is not exhaustive of all spreadsheets released by DHSC). Statistical publications released between 23 September 2018 and 1 September 2021 (referred to below as ‘historical spreadsheets’) have been reviewed with respect to the number of spreadsheets and data tables included. All spreadsheets published from 1 September 2021 have been made fully accessible.

Accessibility of historic statistical spreadsheets

The review found that historical statistical spreadsheets are in the most part perceivable, operable, understandable and robust, as per the definition of accessible. However, DHSC acknowledge that this is not the case for all users, especially for those who are visually impaired or use screen readers. The list below outlines some of the spreadsheet features which might restrict these individuals in navigating the data, particularly when using assistive technologies, and subsequently comprehending the information contained within the tables:

• merged cells
• blank rows or columns
• inaccessible text format (font, colour, background, size)
• symbols
• filters
• frozen cells
• tables not clearly defined

This assessment considers the factors associated with addressing the issues above, with respect to the benefits associated with improving the accessibility of the historical spreadsheets.

Benefits of addressing historic spreadsheets

The benefits of making these historical spreadsheets into accessible versions would be:

• historical data tables would be immediately accessible to all users, including to persons with disabilities, without the need to request an accessible version
• historical data tables would be more easily searchable, including for persons with disabilities

Approach to addressing historic spreadsheets

We have looked at several factors in assessing our historical spreadsheets.

Relevance

The statistical publications in scope for this assessment publish information on a routine regular basis and most see the previous publications superseded each time. Users refer to the most recent iteration of the spreadsheets, which contains the most up-to-date information, applies the latest methodologies, and includes any revisions to historical information. This latest iteration will be fully accessible.

Google analytics

Internal analysis using Google analytics found that interest in a statistical publication peaks immediately after publication, then falls to low levels (single digit downloads) in the months that follow, particularly once the next iteration has been published and superseded the last.

Resource

There are around 420 spreadsheets which may require amending, each of which would involve a large amount of work particularly to restructure and reformat many large and complex data tables.

Conclusion

The spreadsheets published prior to 1 September 2021 as part of the Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in England wastewater monthly statistics publication have been reviewed, amended and republished. These spreadsheets now comply with the accessibility regulations. The spreadsheets were amended due to the small number of historic publications, and the resource required was justifiable.

For other statistical spreadsheets: the majority of the information within the statistical releases during this time is accessible, and the benefit to users of making further products fully accessible would be small relative to the high resource cost of attempting to do so, and the impact to the ongoing delivery of DHSC and OHID statistics. For these reasons no additional work will be carried out to improve accessibility solely for these historic spreadsheets. However, DHSC will ensure any specific output, including historical spreadsheets, is made available in an accessible format upon request.

This can be done either by emailing statistics@dhsc.gov.uk with the details of your request, or by clicking the button below each spreadsheet on GOV.UK which states ‘This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology; request an accessible format.’

DHSC approach to accessibility

DHSC is fully committed to ensuring documents of all types are accessible, to ensure as many people as possible can access the information published on the department’s website. For more information on accessible documents at DHSC please visit the accessible documents policy.

Furthermore, we’re always looking to improve the accessibility of our statistical publications. If you experience difficulty using our statistics or find any accessibility issues please contact statistics@dhsc.gov.uk.