So many acronyms!
Welcome to the letter G in the A to Z of Accessibility: Power Platform Edition. Here we will take a look at a veritable alphabet soup of accessibility with GDS, EAA, ADA and more. These acronyms are some of the regulations, legislations, and design requirements that exist across different geographic regions. Being legal or regulatory they impact organisations working in these regions in different ways.
I am not a lawyer, and this is not a detailed legal requirements page that will tell you all you need to know. This is a page to make you aware of some of the things that exist today, or are coming in the future, that mean you need to be thinking about accessibility!
This post applies to Power Apps, Power Pages, Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents along with things like the Office suite of applications.
The Velcro Alphabet – GDS, EAA, ADA… what next?
Sometimes it can feel as though people are throwing letters at a velcro wall and seeing what sticks. Accessibility is no exception and it’s important for us as solution designers, builders, makers etc to understand these. We also need to understand which ones apply to the regions we are working in. Here are just 3 of the big-hitters.
The UK
If you are in the UK and working with Public Sector / Government websites and applications, then GDS are the letters for you. They stand for Government Digital Service, but the service has built a design system that must be adhered to in any public sector scenarios.
You can read the details of the design system at the GOV.UK Design System website. A lot of it is aligned with the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.1 standard with additional bits to ensure a common look and feel.
GDS is an OK system, but it feels as though they started with a great idea and then let a committee decide on the final result. This means that some of the design choices are rather odd, and a bit clunky, but it’s a decent starting point. It is also, surprisingly for a government thing, really easy to read and follow!
The EU
If you are in the EU or are doing business within or with organisations within the EU, then EAA is going to become your new best friend.
It’s the European Accessibility Act that got signed earlier in 2022 and will become law in June 2025. UK people need to pay attention as well as it’s highly likely that our government will do a search & replace and introduce something very similar around the same time!
This act goes further than GDS in that it covers ANY business or professional services website, app, or digital content. It’s HUGE folks! Even those folks in the community who have a blog site that offers professional services etc could be impacted by this one.
There are exceptions to compliance based on business turnover etc but that’s not something I’m going in to here.
The USA
Over the pond in the world of stars and stripes there is the ADA and Section 508. ADA is the Americans with Disabilities Act, and section 508 essentially partners with it.
This being America “legal requirements” are often seen as “annoying recommendations”. The reality is that people are required, by law, to make their content accessible. If they don’t, they can be sued… Oh the joys of another piece of litigation and lawyers lining their own pockets.
Sorry, my cynicism stepped up a notch there but that’s only because I’ve heard horrendous tales of how people have been put through the wringer when trying to get the ADA applied.
All over the world
These are just a few examples of the legislative requirements being put in place, or already in place, around accessibility. Most countries have their own versions. I would strongly recommend reading up on which ones apply to your region.
Of course, legal requirements shouldn’t be the motivator for building in accessibility. However, they do provide additional weight when trying to ensure it’s considered at the foundation of a project!
Thanks for reading the A to Z a11y – GDS, EAA, ADA and more
Thank you for reading G – GDS, EAA, ADA and more. This post is part of my [A to Z a11y] series the “A to Z Accessibility: Power Platform Edition”. Click here to go to the introduction article where I will be posting a Table of Contents. You can also check out the Accessibility section from the top menu or by going directly to the category page.
Content in this series is ©Mike Hartley. I am happy for folks to quote or reuse snippets (with attribution), but please do not copy whole sections. If there are any corrections or suggestions, then please use my social links to contact me. I am always happy to add additional content and remarks with full credit given. Likewise, these pages will evolve as my learning and understanding grows, so make sure to keep this bookmarked.