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UK Utilities Sector

Website Accessibility for Utilities Organisations

Customers depend on utilities websites to manage accounts, report faults, and access essential service information. A genuinely inclusive digital presence ensures everyone can engage with your services, whatever their needs.

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Recite Me works with a wide range of utilities organisations, including:

United Utilities
Utilita

Regulatory Framework

Accessibility Regulations for UK Utilities Companies

Many utilities providers are subject to both the European Accessibility Act and the Equality Act 2010, requiring alignment with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Here is what utilities organisations need to be aware of:

Adhere to WCAG 2.2 AA Standards

Utilities websites and online account management portals should conform to WCAG 2.2 Level AA to comply with global accessibility laws. Level AAA can serve as an aspirational goal.

Uncover and Address Digital Barriers

Water, gas, electricity, and telecoms providers should conduct thorough audits of their digital services to pinpoint accessibility shortcomings and create a clear roadmap for remediation.

Maintain a Transparent Accessibility Statement

A current accessibility statement should outline which parts of your digital estate have been reviewed, any outstanding issues identified, and the timeframes in place for resolving them.

Embed Ongoing Accessibility Reviews

Accessibility should be treated as a continuous commitment rather than a one-time exercise. Utilities organisations should schedule regular testing cycles across all customer-facing digital channels.

Prepare to Take Regulatory Action

Utilities companies must meet the accessibility obligations set out in applicable legislation. Non-compliance can trigger formal investigations and lead to enforcement action or legal proceedings.

Offer Alternative Routes to Services

Where digital content has not yet reached full accessibility, utilities providers should ensure alternative channels exist so customers can still carry out essential account tasks and access critical service updates.

How We Help

Accessibility Challenges in the Utilities Sector that Recite Me Can Resolve

Utilities organisations face a distinct set of digital accessibility demands. Here is how Recite Me can support you:

Utilities websites attract an extremely wide cross-section of society. Older customers, people with visual or cognitive impairments, and those who speak English as a second language all need to manage their accounts, submit readings, and raise queries online. The Recite Me Assistive Toolbar addresses this directly by adding text-to-speech, language translation, font and colour adjustments, and a range of other personalisation tools directly to your website, enabling customers to self-serve on their own terms.

Many utilities organisations have grown through mergers and acquisitions, resulting in multiple legacy websites, brand portals, and customer-facing platforms running in parallel. Achieving a consistent standard of accessibility across these environments is not straightforward. The Recite Me Website Accessibility Checker gives your team automated scanning at scale, surfacing WCAG 2.2 violations with prioritised recommendations so your developers can work through issues methodically and efficiently.

Utilities providers are increasingly subject to accessibility scrutiny from regulators and consumer bodies. If your organisation receives a formal complaint or compliance notice, a clear and credible remediation plan is essential. Recite Me helps you understand exactly what is expected, identify the highest-priority fixes, and document your progress in a way that demonstrates genuine commitment to improvement.

Bills, tariff comparisons, interruption notices, and terms and conditions are routinely provided as PDFs by utilities companies, and a significant proportion of these documents are not accessible to screen reader users or those who rely on assistive technology. The Recite Me PDF Accessibility Checker and Remediation Tool enables utilities teams to scan, identify, and fix large volumes of documents efficiently, reducing compliance risk and ensuring that critical information reaches every customer.

An accessibility statement is only valuable if it reflects reality. Many utilities organisations struggle to maintain statements that accurately capture what has been reviewed, what still needs attention, and what improvements are genuinely planned. Recite Me provides the data and structure needed to produce statements you can stand behind, and keep updated as your digital services evolve.

Why Digital Inclusion Matters for B2B Marketing

Across Your Organisation

Key Roles Recite Me Supports

Delivering accessible digital services in utilities is a collaborative effort. Recite Me supports teams across the organisation in playing their part.

Marketing & Communications

Recite Me helps marketing teams produce communications that genuinely reach everyone, including customers with additional needs or those who prefer to engage in languages other than English.

  • Real-time content translation
  • Customisable reading and display
  • Accessible digital communications
  • Broader reach across all audiences

Digital, IT and Web

Recite Me gives your technical teams the visibility and tooling they need to build and maintain accessible utilities platforms, from initial development through to ongoing monitoring.

  • Live progress dashboards
  • Automated website scanning
  • Continuous monitoring between audits
  • Fix recommendations ranked by severity

Compliance & Governance

Recite Me helps compliance teams demonstrate that your organisation is meeting its accessibility obligations, with evidence trails suitable for regulatory review and internal governance.

  • Audit-ready documentation
  • Exportable compliance evidence
  • Structured records of remediation
  • WCAG 2.2 level AA alignment reporting

Our Solutions

Recite Me Accessibility Solutions for the Utilities Sector

Recite Me offers a connected suite of accessibility tools that help utilities providers serve every customer online, meet their legal obligations, and manage documents at scale. Key solutions include:

INCLUSION

Assistive Toolbar

  • Text-to-speech with over 65 voices
  • Translation software with over 100 languages
  • Styling changes for colours and fonts
  • Focus tools, such as rulers and screen masks
  • Reading aids, such as dictionaries, page summarisers, and magnifiers

Explore our Toolbar

COMPLIANCE

Web Accessibility Checker

  • Full site scanning for WCAG 2.2 violations
  • Prioritised list of accessibility fixes
  • AI-powered autofixes, code suggestions, and image alt text generation
  • Schedule future audits for long-term compliance
  • Integration with project management tools like Jira and Azure DevOps

Explore our Web Checker

DOCUMENTS

PDF Accessibility Checker

  • Full website scanning to identify inaccessible documents
  • Implement AI-powered autofixes to resolve accessibility issues
  • Remediate PDF files at scale
  • Track progress and schedule future scans
  • Compliance with accessibility standards like WCAG and EAA

Explore our PDF checker

Customers

What Utilities Organisations Say About Recite Me

Utilities providers across the UK use Recite Me to make their websites and documents more inclusive for the customers who depend on them every day.

Download the Utilities Accessibility Guide

Practical guidance on building more accessible digital services for utilities customers.

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Resolving digital barriers

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Website build tips

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How Recite Me helps

Download Utilities Accessibility Guide Now

Utilities Accessibility FAQs

Utility providers are primarily covered by the Equality Act 2010 and the European Accessibility Act, both of which require digital services to be accessible to users with disabilities.

Yes. Documents that customers need to manage their services, such as bills, tariff information, interruption notices, and complaints procedures, should be fully accessible. Exemptions exist in specific circumstances, but these are narrow and should not be relied upon without proper legal review.

No single tool can guarantee full compliance on its own. Accessibility software accelerates the process of finding and fixing issues, but your teams still need to act on the findings and maintain improvement over time. Tools are an enabler, not a substitute for genuine organisational commitment to accessibility.

A published accessibility statement shows intent, but it does not mean your website is compliant. What matters is whether the barriers your statement acknowledges are being actively resolved. Regulators and legal bodies will look at the substance of your remediation efforts, not just the existence of the statement itself.

At a minimum, a full audit should take place every quarter, with additional checks triggered whenever new features, pages, or documents are launched. Accessibility issues can be introduced through routine content updates, so building monitoring into everyday operations is the most effective long-term approach.