HMRC – creating accessible learning
The HMRC Accessibility Team: Internal Accessibility Centre of Excellence, within the Mobility and Workplace Services, follow four main guiding principles of accessibility upon which the United Kingdom’s Accessibility Standard WCAG has been built. These four principles are known by the acronym POUR for perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 and HMRC is committed to ensuring that as many people as possible can view their documentation, including that published online.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is a non-ministerial department of the UK Government responsible for the collection of taxes, the payment of some forms of state support and the administration of other regulatory regimes including the UK’s customs authority.
Accessibility Standards and the Public Sector
The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (or PSBAR) came into effect in the UK in 2020. This applies to public sector organisations’ websites, intranets and extranets and any digital content held within them, including digital learning content. The regulations are monitored and enforced according to the European standard EN 301 549, which aligns with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 levels A and AA.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) developed WCAG as international standards for accessibility across the web, including digital learning. Within these guidelines there are three levels of conformance: A, AA and AAA, with A being the basic level of compliance that all organisations should be meeting; AA being an acceptable level of accessibility and the foundation for many international accessibility regulations; and AAA being best practice.
Services Provided:
History of HMRC and Larmer Brown
HMRC awarded Larmer Brown the contract to provide a Fully Managed Hosted Solution of the dominKnow | ONE content authoring platform, as well as consultancy, training and technical support in February 2017. Read our HMRC dominKnow | ONE Case Study for more information.
dominKnow | ONE is a cloud-based content authoring and knowledge management platform that offers three development modes enabling authors to easily create responsive learning content, IT system simulations and quickly convert PowerPoint presentations to eLearning. Larmer Brown has been a Reseller and Services Partner for dominKnow Learning Systems offering the dominKnow I ONE platform to clients since 2012. The platform has been utilised by HMRC’s team of 250 authors to develop their digital learning content since 2017.
In July 2023 a HMRC Accessibility Consultant requested confirmation that dominKnow | ONE met accessibility requirements, specifically guidelines for WCAG 2.1 Level AA. If it was determined that dominKnow | ONE could not meet these requirements, then HMRC would look for an alternative tool.
The Investigation
During October 2023, Larmer Brown’s Lead Accessibility Author, Emma Hewlett, embarked on a comprehensive six-month testing and reporting cycle of dominKnow | ONE’s features and functions. Her objective was to validate an external accessibility report and clarify any discrepancies, ambiguities and challenge where we felt transparency or accuracy was lacking.
The vendor, dominKnow Inc., confirmed their commitment to ensure the tool met WCAG 2.1 AA and more recently WCAG 2.2 AA, and demonstrated this initiative by retaining the services of a third-party testing team who carried out an accessibility audit and completed a VPAT. Emma, who has a Professional Certificate in Accessibility and Universal Design, not only contributed to the third-party report but supported the dominKnow Inc team during many test iterations. The testing utilised a sample eLearning course that included a large proportion of dominKnow | ONE interactions and functionality, including those known not to be accessible (e.g. drag-and-drop interactions), thereby providing constructive feedback.
The detailed results of the testing were reviewed by Emma and the Larmer Brown team, and any exceptions or queries were escalated with dominKnow’s team to ensure the report was both comprehensive and technically correct. Emma also supported dominKnow Inc. with writing their accessibility statement, liaising with HMRC to ensure that their requirements were met and their questions answered.
On occasions, dominKnow Inc. hadn’t included components for testing and Larmer Brown challenged this. We requested content and guidance for authors to create accessible content, and held dominKnow Inc. to account when it came to the development of their roadmaps.
At the same time, HMRC also embarked upon their own accessibility testing of dominKnow | ONE and shared their results with Larmer Brown who reviewed and tested every case. Issues were escalated to dominKnow Inc. and their accessibility testers to investigate, advise and retest content where necessary. The Larmer Brown team acted as ‘go-between’ for the two testing parties from HMRC and dominKnow Inc., coordinating meetings and monitoring the progress, seeking clarification and resolution from dominKnow Inc. when needed.
All the identified issues raised by HMRC’s accessibility testing were investigated and resolved by the Larmer Brown and dominKnow Inc. teams. It became clear during this process that HMRC’s authors needed training and support in how to create accessible training using dominKnow | ONE. Accessibility issues that related specifically to dominKnow | ONE, rather than other technologies utilised by the HMRC team, were either resolved or raised as an enhancement request by Larmer Brown. During the period September 2024 to January 2025 over 55% of the accessibility related enhancement requests have progressed through the dominKnow | ONE roadmap and are now in production.
At Larmer Brown’s request, dominKnow Inc. created a working roadmap of accessibility enhancements that would help HMRC meet their procurement requirements. This roadmap was created specifically for Larmer Brown and not included on the public accessibility statement, as it allowed the team to manage HMRC’s expectations throughout the investigation.
“HMRC have used dominKnow | ONE to create eLearning content since 2017. When the requirement to meet the WCAG standards was announced, we were delighted that Larmer Brown were prepared to work closely with us to ensure the tool was fully compliant. Their detailed accessibility testing, proactive coordination, and tailored training have been invaluable in helping our authors create content that meets the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.”
Joe Kaute
Learning Technology and Innovation Team, HMRC
The Outcome
By the end of the investigation Larmer Brown had invested more than 92 hours of time into the investigation and all HMRC’s accessibility testing issues were resolved. In March 2024 dominKnow Inc. released the accessibility statement and VPAT for dominKnow | ONE, stating that ‘dominKnow | ONE supports creation of content that fully complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard.’
Upon completion of the investigation Larmer Brown hosted a webinar for the HMRC product team, providing an overview of WCAG and the accessibility features of dominKnow | ONE. These webinars were refined and a series of complimentary sessions delivered to authors across HMRC. These complimentary webinars are also scheduled monthly on our Events Schedule.
To effectively disseminate the information to such a large audience of authors (250), Larmer Brown scheduled a roadshow comprising a whistle-stop tour of five HMRC locations; Nottingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Edinburgh, showcasing the dominKnow | ONE accessibility functionality. The objectives of these two-hour sessions were to share collective knowledge and experience as well as improve the communication between HMRC authors and Larmer Brown.
There were a number of accessibility related queries which led to additional enhancement requests, some of which dominKnow Inc. were aware of and had already started to develop. Larmer Brown regularly submit enhancement requests to the dominKnow Inc. team and as a result, each new release of the tool incorporates new functionality.
Larmer Brown maintains a close working relationship with dominKnow Inc. and are consulted on feature upgrades and WCAG enhancements for the platform, all of which are tested by the Larmer Brown team prior to the upgrade of client instances.
“The Larmer Brown Roadshow visited each HMRC UK site to further assist author understanding. The agenda included dissemination of the standards and demonstrations aligned to the dominKnow | ONE accessibility features. These in-person sessions were well attended and gave our authors a deeper understanding and the knowledge and confidence to create inclusive, compliant content.”
Joe Kaute
Learning Technology and Innovation Team, HMRC
Ongoing Accessibility Training
Larmer Brown has developed an accessibility training course, entitled ‘Creating Accessible Content in dominKnow | ONE’ which is being delivered to HMRC authors over the coming months. The course aims to introduce delegates to the theories and definitions underpinning accessible content design, as well as the standards and regulations that must be followed to create WCAG-compliant content. Each session includes a series of short demonstrations of an accessible eLearning course created by Larmer Brown, teaching delegates how to apply WCAG 2.1 and WCAG 2.2 standards to their course design and development. The importance of assistive technology in the design and quality assurance stages of development is also covered. Additional tasks allow delegates to practise elements of their learning in dominKnow | ONE. Larmer Brown has also successfully delivered this training to other clients, and a list of open dates is available on our Public Schedule of Open Courses.