Build the annual plan and evidence report

Build the plan from current evidence

Prepare the annual plan from the covered inventory, current issue register, prior review results, user feedback, planned releases, training needs and available staff time. Recheck prior findings against current evidence before marking them open, repaired or distributed to reviewers.

For each activity, define the user or process need, deliverable, accountable owner, contributors, resources, target date, acceptance evidence, dependencies and status. Include recurring monitoring, known-barrier remediation, content workflows, supplier reviews and staff training. Prioritize blocked or time-sensitive tasks, shared components with broad impact, repeat findings and high-use public services. Record why lower-impact work is scheduled later.

Ask leadership to confirm feasibility, allocate time and resolve resource decisions. Dates and assignments become commitments after the authorized owner approves them.

Record plan fields

Illustrative example: “Review the registration flow after the form component update; owner: assigned site owner; target: confirm after release planning; acceptance: keyboard and screen-reader task results, deployed version, unresolved findings and reviewer decision attached.” This example does not describe a completed District activity.

Review progress and report evidence

Use a weekly quick review during active releases to check immediate blockers and deadlines. Hold a monthly thorough review of plan status, new and recurring issues, overdue work and evidence completeness. At quarter end, summarize completed tasks, test scope, barriers still affecting users, changed priorities and decisions needed. At year end, review the full cycle with the approving owner, revise the next plan and retain the evidence package.

The annual evidence package identifies its audience, preparer, review date, covered scope, evaluation method, tools and versions, sampled pages or tasks, results, issue status, training delivered, known limitations and source records. Include raw scan outputs and manual test records where relevant; state exclusions and reasons. Pair each score, count or percentage with its sample, method and denominator, and treat it as a summary rather than conformance evidence by itself.

Distribute the reviewed report through an approved channel and record who received it, when, what decisions followed and which items remain open. WCAG-EM provides a useful structure for defining scope, exploring assets, selecting samples, evaluating them and reporting results. See review and maintenance for recurring checks and issue handling for tracking remediation.

Use a working record

Complete a record when the activity occurs, download it and retain it in the approved team location.

• Annual accessibility improvement plan
• Assessment evidence and distribution review