Accessibility issues
Manage and prioritise accessibility issues
- Last reviewed
- 14 September 2026
- Owner
- DesignOps
Find out how to track, prioritise and fix accessibility issues found through audits, testing, user feedback or complaints.
Accessibility issues can create barriers for people using your product or website. Your team should address them promptly and keep track of them through to resolution.
Who should manage accessibility issues?
All professions involved in your product or website should understand and contribute to addressing accessibility issues.
Product and delivery managers should manage prioritisation and timescales. Lead developers and designers should be involved in deciding how issues will be fixed and implemented.
Share audit findings, issues and progress across the team so everyone understands what needs to be done.
Track your issues
Track accessibility issues from when they are identified through to resolution.
Your tracking should include:
- a description of the issue
- the level of conformance affected, such as A, AA or AAA
- the date the issue was found
- the date it is due to be fixed, or the date it was fixed
- whether the issue is open or closed
- details of the fix once the issue has been remediated
Keeping this information will also help you maintain your accessibility statement.
[Use the accessibility issues and statements service]
Prioritise issues
Prioritise issues based on their impact on users and the effort needed to fix them.
Consider the impact on users
Do not prioritise an issue based only on its WCAG conformance level.
Consider:
- where the issue occurs in the user journey
- whether it prevents a user from continuing
- whether it affects a specific part of the service
- whether it occurs across the whole service
- how many users may be affected
In most circumstances, Level A issues will create bigger barriers than AA issues, followed by AAA issues. However, this is not always the case.
You should consider the actual impact of the issue on users.
Consider impact and effort Impact and effort Priority High impact, low effort High High impact, high effort High / Medium Low impact, low effort Medium Low impact, high effort Low
Use this as a guide rather than relying on the WCAG level alone.
If you need help prioritising issues, DesignOps can provide support.
Fix issues
Your approach to fixing an issue will depend on what caused it.
Technical issues may need developers to change how a component has been implemented. Issues caused by design decisions may need a designer to change the design.
Some issues may require part of your product or website to be redesigned.
If you need specialist advice on how to fix an issue, contact DesignOps.
Retest fixes
Keep track of issues as they are fixed.
Contact your audit supplier as you progress so you can arrange a date to retest the fixes.
Record the fix and the outcome of the retest in your issue tracking.
Do not mark an issue as resolved until you are confident that it has been fixed. This may need to be confirmed by an accessibility expert within DfE, your audit supplier or DesignOps.
Update your accessibility statement
When issues have been resolved, update your accessibility statement to reflect the current accessibility of your product or website.
You should only remove an issue from your accessibility statement when you are confident that it has been confirmed as resolved.
[Find out how to publish an accessibility statement]
Need help?
If you need help understanding, prioritising or fixing an accessibility issue, contact DesignOps.