Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 July 2021
65. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Transport 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). [38502/21]
View answerMy Department is committed to addressing the requirements as set out in the National Disability and Inclusion Strategy 2017-2021, including Action 16 - promoting accessibility and universal design principles in the implementation of the Public Service ICT Strategy.
My Department’s Accessibility Consultative Committee (ACC) meets on a quarterly basis. The ACC brings together Officials from my Department, from relevant Agencies, representatives from organisations representing people with disabilities and members of the Disability Stakeholder Group (DSG). The DSG members are appointed under the Government’s National Disability Inclusion Strategy. The minutes of these meetings, the ACC Work Programme and other related documentation are available online on gov.ie.
One of the key pillars of my Department's Statement of Strategy 2021-2023 is "Safety, Security & Accessibility" under which we will continue to progressively make our transport systems accessible for persons with disabilities, persons with reduced mobility and older people, using an integrated universal design approach. Additionally, our Customer Charter 2020-2022 has, at its core, an approach to enable citizens to interact with my Department in an accessible and flexible manner (These publications are available on my Department's website on gov.ie/transport).
My Department’s most high-volume public portal is www.motortax.ie which is overseen by our Driver Vehicle Computer Services Division (DVCSD) in Shannon where all public facing projects are assigned a member of the User Experience (UX) team. The team are trained in the application of universal design principles and work with the Division through the project’s design and development phases to ensure best practice in universal design and adherence to accessibility guidelines. An initial research phase is included to help assess user needs in terms of both usability and accessibility. In this way accessibility is built into public facing projects from day one.
Implementation of the Public Service ICT Strategy is a key consideration for ICT projects in my Department and the commitments outlined in both the Statement of Strategy and Customer Charter above extend to the delivery of all ICT-related projects that provide citizen-facing services.
