Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 February 2022
81. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the inaccessibility of paper-based applications for social welfare supports; and if she will consider making applications available online at MyWelfare.ie enhancing the independence of persons who are blind or vision impaired to populate and submit their applications independently. [5488/22]
View answerLaunched in 2015, the MyWelfare.ie platform continues to develop and grow. The rationale for developing a customer facing online platform, as set out in the Department's Digital Services Channel Strategy, was to meet growing customer demand and expectations. This rationale remains and my Department is now working towards the Civil Service Renewal target of getting 90% of services online by 2030.
The Department is committed to inclusive design, enabling online portals which can be used by all users including those who may have cognitive or physical impairments, such as blindness. This means that our sites, including MyWelfare.ie, can be used with assistive technologies such as screen readers or by using a keyboard for navigation, but also that the design of our sites supports cognitive and visual impairments such as dyslexia, colour blindness or those short of sight, to ensure for all users that there is a smooth journey and experience through our online portals.
Following a recent assessment on website accessibility conducted by Ireland’s monitoring authority, the National Disability Authority, my Department has been made aware of a number of areas in which accessibility improvements can be made to MyWelfare.ie. These will be made as part of our ongoing platform improvements and in tandem with the build and release of new services and applications.
My Department is also engaged with the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) as part of the implementation process for the EU Directive and our content on gov.ie.
