Government Digital Service Details Information Architecture Practices for Digital Accessibility

The UK Government Digital Service (GDS) has shared insights from its information architecture team on integrating digital accessibility into service design as part of its ongoing “Unlocking Accessibility” series.

Traditionally tasked with planning, designing, and carrying out user research to help service teams understand the public, information architects at GDS addressed core questions covering strategy, cross-disciplinary education, common pitfalls, and practical tooling.

Priorities and Core Pillars

When organisations begin addressing accessibility within information architecture, GDS practitioners emphasize embedding the discipline across all organizational levels and internal workflows, alongside building stakeholder advocacy early. Rather than producing knowledge organisation systems such as sitemaps and ontologies in isolation, teams must align structures with end-user needs.

GDS highlights three structural pillars:

• Ontology (what the information is): Clear and consistent concepts assist people with cognitive disabilities, learning differences, or limited domain knowledge.
• Taxonomy (how information is organised): Predictable and logical classification structures support screen reader users and individuals with mobility impairments.
• Choreography (how users interact over time, channels, and contexts): Logical sequencing ensures predictable keyboard tabbing order, clear focus indicators, consistent navigation, and clear calls to action.

Team Education and Cross-Discipline Collaboration

To align designers, developers, and content creators, the specialists recommend using shared frameworks such as the POUR principles (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust):

• Perceivable: Ensuring users can perceive and understand information.
• Operable: Confirming functionality and navigation are usable via keyboard.
• Understandable: Matching conceptual team models to user cognitive interpretations.
• Robust: Verifying compatibility with different browsers, future tooling, and assistive technologies.

GDS specialists also stressed considering both front-end and back-end users, noting that the accessibility of Content Management Systems (CMS) and taxonomy tagging tools is as critical as front-facing website navigation. When direct engagement with disabled users is not feasible, carefully applied simulations—such as vision-impairing glasses or motor-restriction gloves—can uncover workflow barriers, though their limitations must be recognised.

Common Pitfalls

Key mistakes identified in the guidance include:

• Structuring services around stakeholder and administrative hierarchies rather than user needs.
• Compressing user research timelines under delivery pressure.
• Inconsistent terminology and lack of a controlled vocabulary, which introduces unnecessary cognitive load.
• Overlapping site sections that create confusing choices.
• Treating information architecture as a static, one-time project rather than an evolving system requiring ongoing iteration.

To mitigate cognitive barriers—such as those experienced by individuals with dyslexia, dementia, or situational focus limits—practitioners recommend progressive disclosure, stepped hierarchies, and multiple pathways to complete tasks.

Methods and Tools

To build accessible structures, GDS practitioners rely on standards grounded in the universality of the web, such as those set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Practical research methods include card sorting, tree testing, and noun and verb foraging to capture genuine user language. Additionally, teams utilize Object-Oriented Design (OOD) to construct environments based on tangible entities, standardising attributes across systems to deliver consistent structure and personalization.

Further details can be found in the Government Digital Service guidance.