Our partnership with DAC

The Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) is a third-party digital accessibility agency. They provide independent accessibility assessments for Nationwide and other organisations such as the Government Digital Service.

DAC is Nationwide’s sole accessibility partner.

What does DAC do?

DAC assess Nationwide’s digital journeys and platforms against recognised accessibility standards (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines – WCAG).

After an assessment, if a journey or platform complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, DAC will award the product or service with an accessibility accreditation certificate. This is known internally as achieving “DAC Accreditation”.

The certificate states that the website or application has a high level of accessibility quality and is compliant with WCAG 2.1 Level AA. The accreditation is valid for 12 months from the award date of the certificate. After a year, the website or application will require another assessment to retain the accreditation.

Please note, while DAC’s accreditation award scheme is a respected scheme, it is not an official accessibility accreditation. An official accessibility accreditation scheme does not exist. Other accessibility agencies such as AbilityNet and The Shaw Trust offer similar accreditation schemes; however, none carry legal or regulatory weight. They are simply a way of independently verifying the accessibility quality of a digital product or service.

For more information about DAC’s assessment process, please see Understanding the accessibility assessment process.

Becoming “DAC Accreditation Ready”

All Nationwide digital products and services must aim to achieve DAC accreditation by complying with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1.

Journeys and platforms must be “accreditation ready” before taking a DAC accessibility assessment. Before the check for accreditation takes place, you must be confident the journey or platform in question meets Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. You must:

• Include people with disabilities in user research and testing.
• Design and build journeys with accessibility in mind.
• Thoroughly test journeys using manual and automated accessibility testing techniques.
• Address any issues identified during testing before assessment.

The accreditation process is straightforward but does require preparation. Please see “Preparing for an accessibility accreditation assessment” [link to page] for more information.

How does Nationwide use accessibility assessments?

The Nationwide Digital Accessibility Governance Forum use the independent accessibility assessments from DAC to track and measure the accessibility quality in our digital journeys and platforms. It helps the Forum to understand:

• The levels of accessibility competence and confidence of colleagues.
• Any process improvements that are required to help create accessible services by default.
• The legal, regulatory and reputational risks associated with in-accessible digital products and services, e.g. where members with permanent, temporary or situational disabilities or impairments may encounter difficulties using our digital products and services.

Failing an Accessibility Assessment

If the journey or platform does not pass the accessibility assessment, DAC will not award the accreditation. Further work will be necessary to achieve certification and ensure that there are no barriers for people with disabilities in the journey or platform.

Journeys/platforms should not be “put live” if they have known accessibility issues. By not providing equal access to our digital products and services, this put Nationwide at legal and moral risk of discriminating against people with disabilities.

In rare situations, where a journey must launch with known problems, you must present the case for doing so to the Digital Accessibility Governance Forum. The Forum will decide on the appropriate next steps.

How is DAC different from Nationwide’s Accessibility team?

DAC and Nationwide’s accessibility team have different responsibilities when it comes to accessibility. DAC is responsible for assessing and reporting on the accessibility quality built into a website/application. In contrast, Nationwide’s accessibility team are responsible for raising awareness of accessibility and training people how to do it well.

Will Nationwide continue to work with an accessibility partner in the future?

Yes. Nationwide will always need to work with an accessibility partner like DAC to have its digital products and services independently reviewed and verified in terms of accessibility.