What's new - Updates

Added new accessibility requirements: WCAG 2.2

Added sections on making sure your service meets WCAG 2.2 for: Product and delivery and Design, Development and Testing

Added list of changes to meet new accessibility requirements to design system

Updated components and styles for WCAG 2.2:

• Back link: guidance on positioning and keeping data the user has entered
• Breadcrumbs: guidance on positioning
• Buttons: guidance on minimum target size
• Error message: guidance on not clearing data the user has entered
• Footer: guidance on placing help links
• Header: guidance on placing help links and not hiding content that has a focus applied
• Select: guidance on avoiding click and drag
• Summary list: guidance on action link target size and keeping data the user has entered
• Tag: guidance on avoiding click and drag
• Focus state: guidance on not hiding content that has a focus applied
• Icons: guidance on minimum target size

Updated site map

Updated outstanding COVID-19 entries in the A to Z of NHS health writing

Deleted entry for NHS COVID Pass as this service has closed

Right aligned copyright statement in the footer component

Fixed target size issue on A to Z page

Added new page Feedback or share insights in Community and contribution section

Updated the "Help us improve this guidance" section at the bottom of pages across the site

Updated site map

Introduced WCAG 2.2 requirement in Accessibility guidance

Updated NHS accessibility checklist to reflect WCAG 2.2

Renamed "Content style guide" "Content guide"

Added new British Sign Language (BSL) quality assurance standard

Added mention of "convulsions" to entry on "seizure or fit" in the A to Z of NHS health writing

Amended entry for "NHS 111 online" in the A to Z of NHS health writing

Updated the standard for creating health content to refer to WCAG 2.2

Clarified content about font on typography page

Added section on copyright to the footer component and updated examples

Explained about headings below Do and Don't list and warning callout components

Changed example of radio items with hints

Reworded care card component

Introduced WCAG 2.2 requirement on the design system home page

Added section on AI and digital healthcare technologies to standard 8 in the NHS service standard

Added section about the AI and Digital Regulations Service to section 16 of the NHS service standard

Added link to the AI and Digital Regulations Service for health and social care from section 11 of the NHS service standard

Updated service standard 5 to refer to WCAG 2.2

Updated site map

Updated service manual footer to say (c) NHS England

Updated header and footer components

Added prefix and suffix examples to text input component

Updated link to health literacy toolkit on our health literacy page

Changed "heritage" to "background" on the page about ethnicity, religion and nationality to bring it into line with rest of page

Added 3 new variants to card component: top task, primary and secondary cards

Added updated PDF with new principle 10 to design principles page

Added brief section on bold, italics and underlining to Typography page

Added new section on Designing content for people who struggle with numbers on the Numbers, measurements, dates and time page

Added new entry for "online consultation" in the A to Z of NHS health content

Added guidance on bold, italics and underlining on the Formatting and punctuation page

Added to guidance on dashes on Formatting and punctuation page

Changed guidance on time on Numbers, measurements, dates and time page

Changed entry for "coronavirus (COVID-19)" to "COVID-19" in the A to Z

Changed entry for "secure message" in the A to Z

Changed NHS England and Improvement (NHSEI) to NHS England (NHSE) in the A to Z

Deleted 077718 300 300 from phone numbers section in the A to Z

Deleted NHS Test and Trace and NHS Covid-19 app from the A to Z

Update site map with Character count and Tabs

Added new section on accessibility widgets and overlays to the guidance for designers and developers

Added new section in the guidance on meeting the requirements, aimed at teams working to short deadlines, with other minor updates to the page

Linked to the NHS accessibility checklist

Removed mention of GDS empathy lab (now closed)

Duplicated guidance for testers on giving users time to act on devs and designers pages

Added 2 new experimental components: character count and tabs

Added a new sustainability principle to the Design principles

Updated the breadcrumbs styling

Added links to the NHS Constitution from the information about the NHS service standard and the guidance on service standard 5

Added links to NHS Digital's API policies and best practice from service standard 17

Changed "NHS Digital" to "NHS England" following the merger

Added new entries to the A to Z of NHS health writing, including "clinician", "perinatal", "secure message", "SMS", "triage", and a number of coronavirus (COVID-19) related entries

Amended a wrong example phone number in A to Z of NHS health writing (in last release)

Added button example to back link component

Added double click prevention example to buttons component

Updated information on future guidance in images component

Linked to the NHS data standards directory from point 17 in the NHS service standard

Fixed link and ID reference in A to Z page which caused the A-Z list not to link to any cards.

Linked to the NHS data standards directory from point 17 in the NHS service standard

Added entries for negative, specialty and opticians, optometrists, ophthalmologists and orthoptists to the A to Z of NHS health writing

Amended entry for positive in the A to Z of NHS health writing

Added maximum length to section on alt text in skin symptoms guidance

Fixed link in coronavirus (COVID-19) entry in A to Z of NHS health writing

Updated and fixed links in point 17 in the NHS service standard

Updated timescales about reduced service on service manual team page

Added a new entry for integrated care boards (ICBs), in the A to Z of NHS health writing

Removed link to the old Information Standard from the standard for creating health content and added a sentence about the value of good content

Removed a link and fixed another in skin symptoms guidance

Removed a confusing date from the reference to the NHS Constitution in the design principles

Replaced the old Information Standard link on the review date pattern (Reassure users that a page is up to date) with a link to the new standard for creating health content

Added 2 new blog posts to What's new

Added a new standard for creating health content, developed with NHS England

Made minor tweaks to the standard based on feedback after publication

Added a link to Hemingway Editor tool from the How we write page

Removed a broken link from the Numbers, measurements, dates and time page

Removed old blog posts from point 1 in the NHS service standard and added recent posts

Updated the service manual team page

Updated the site map

Removed the feedback survey from the home page, footer and several other pages

Renamed the standards and technology section which now includes a new section about key techologies as well as the NHS service standard

Added 2 new pages about NHS login and the Personal Demographics Service (PDS)

Added links from NHS service standard 11 to the NHS login and PDS pages

Linked to Tero Väänänen's blog post from service standard points 1, 2 and 6

Added new posts by Tero Väänänen and Kathryn Grace to the blog posts page

Linked from guidance on using alternative text to section on providing a long description in skin symptoms guidance

Changed Inclusive language page to an Inclusive content section and added skin symptoms guidance to it

Updated skin symptoms guidance after user testing. In particular, added more information about long descriptions.

Updated the NHSX and fixed inconsistencies in the A to Z of NHS health writing

Deleted mentions of Behind the Headlines from the A to Z of NHS health writing

Updated wording about Open Document Formats (with a link) in guidance on PDFs and other non-HTML documents

Fixed 2 typos on the Formatting and punctuation page

Linked from images component to section on providing a long description in skin symptoms guidance

Removed the beta banner from the NHS service standard

Updated the service manual team page

Updated information about closed captions (sometimes called subtitles) in the section on making video and other multimedia content accessible

Removed some detail from the section on checking colour contrast and added it to the design system page on colour instead

Added new section on aligning text on formatting and punctuation page

Added an entry for booster in the A to Z of NHS health writing

Added the word "only" to guidance on avoiding linking to PDFs on the Links page

Updated link to WC3 WCAG2.1 in section on avoiding opening new windows or tabs on Links page

Added new section on text alignment on typography page

Added more detail about colour contrast and accessibility to the page on colour

Added a sentence about not using "none of the above" to the checkboxes component "none" option

Updated link to information about modulus 11 algorithm in the pattern for asking users for their NHS number

Linked to Involving people and communities in digital services (on NHSX's website) from standard 1 and standard 5

Updated service manual team page

New page where you can download accessibility posters, with 6 posters for different professions

Updated the service manual team page

Updated links to point to the new pattern for helping users decide when and where to get care (care cards) from:

• the A to Z of NHS health writing
• the Formatting and punctuation page

Reworked the care card component as a pattern to help users decide when and where to get care, with updated guidance

Updated links to point to the new pattern from the colour page and from these components:

• action link
• card
• expander
• inset text
• warning callout

Amended the care cards component page to direct people to the pattern instead

Added a review date component page to direct people to the pattern for reassuring users that a page is up to date instead

Added the word "reuse" alongside "build" and "buy" in the guidance on service standard 11

Updated the site map and service manual team page

Added a new start page pattern and guidance

Changed case of the word "or" in the "none" option of the checkboxes component

Added more links to our feedback survey – on the Qualtrics website

Updates to the section on ethnicity, religion and nationality in the Inclusive content section

New entries for "BAME", "Black or black", "BME", "ethnic minorities", "ethnicity", "race" and "White or white" in the A to Z of NHS health writing

Added note about "Black or black" and "White or white" to the section on capitalisation on the Formatting and punctuation page

New entry for "positive" in the A to Z of NHS health writing

Added "none" option to the checkboxes component

Updated the service manual team page

New entries on NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI) and NHSX in the A to Z of NHS health writing

Added 2 more bullet points to the guidance on image captions in the image component

Week 1: the latest from the NHS additional language support discovery – new set of week notes from the service manual team

Added a feedback survey - on Qualtrics website

Added new paragraph on the page about the NHS service standard, under the heading "NHS services and the GOV.UK service standard"

Added new section in point 5: Make sure everyone can use the service to explain what we mean by inclusion and accessibility. Also added a reference to the 2018 accessibility regulations.

Clarified what we mean by "agile" in point 7. Use agile ways of working

Clarified what we mean by "iteration" for live teams in point 8. Iterate and improve frequently

Added information about privacy policies and data protection impact assessments (DPIAs) in point 9. Respect and protect users' confidentiality and privacy

Brought all guidance on captions together in the images component

Brought the images component example into line with the accessibility guidance on using alt-text for images in content

Updated guidance on length of alt-text in section on using alternative text for images in content

Moved guidance on image captions from the accessibility guidance to the images component

New section: Skin symptoms

New entries in the A to Z of NHS health writing for: black skin, brown skin, redness, skin colour changes, white skin

Some guidance on writing about skin colour in the section on Ethnicity, religion and nationality in the Inclusive content section

Updated entries in the A to Z of NHS health writing on immunisation, jab, vaccine, and vaccination

New entries in the A to Z for GP online services and ID

Brought all guidance on captions together in the images component

Brought images component example into line with the accessiblity guidance on using alt-text for images in content

Added real error message example to date input component

Updated section on making video and other multimedia content accessible

Added a new entry for GP system supplier names and patient-facing services to the A to Z of NHS health writing

Linked from our content style guide entry for coronavirus (COVID-19) to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) A to Z on GOV.UK

Removed the review date component and replaced it with the "Reassure users that a page is up to date" pattern

Added page template guidance