The Department's website is hosted on www.gov.ie
and has been designed to meet the standards currently applied by that platform.
Gov.ie – which is the main Government site with over 122 million pageviews in 2020 - partially complies with the double-A Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 standards and the four principles of accessibility, in that it is perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. This is similar to most other Government sites across the EU.
Accessibility is being enhanced by improving the level of plain English used for services on the site. This allows users of all levels to be able to find and understand information as quickly as possible.
The gov.ie team have performed multiple accessibility reviews since the website has gone live. They have engaged with an accessibility expert to outline all accessibility requirements. This is an ongoing process.
Following the last accessibility audit, 65 issues were fixed and the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) has since released updates to the core code of the site to improve accessibility.
All other sites managed by OGCIO are currently being moved to a new Client Management System (CMS) which has been built with WCAG compatibility in mind. This project is well underway and has been in progress for the last few months.
As regards the twelve State Bodies under the aegis of the Department, the information requested is an operational matter for the State Bodies themselves. I have referred the Deputy’s question to the Agencies and have requested that a response should issue within 10 days.
