Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 July 2021
29. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the way his Department and public bodies and agencies under his remit are implementing Action 16 of the National Disability and Inclusion Strategy 2017-2021 (details supplied). [38478/21]
View answerMy Department is committed to the promotion of accessibility and universal design principles and Action 15 of my Departments ICT Strategy 2020-2025 reaffirms this commitment. My Department aims to achieve AA standard under WCAG 2.1 guidelines when developing websites or online systems. As part of this commitment, it has begun the process of migrating website content to gov.ie. A review of all websites is ongoing and, where practicable, each website will be migrated to the .gov.ie platform. Where it is not possible to migrate a particular site to the .gov.ie platform it will be upgraded to meet the WCAG 2.1 guidelines. In addition, as part of my Departments ICT Strategy, existing online transactional systems will be redeveloped and some new online systems will be launched. Meeting the WCAG 2.1 guidelines will also be a key element of these projects. The Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach will be used. My Department encourages feedback from its customers and will work with individual visitors to resolve any issues should they have any difficulties accessing content or systems.
I have asked the Agencies under the remit of my Department to update me on the position in relation to their own accessibility compliance, and this information will be forwarded to the Deputy shortly.
