The principle of accessibility is set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which Ireland ratified in March 2018. Article 9 of the UNCRPD requires signatories to take measures to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal access to information and communications, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public.
The EU Web Accessibility Directive, which has been in force since 23 September 2020, requires all websites and applications of public sector bodies to meet specific accessibility standards. The Directive requires regular monitoring of public sector websites and applications by Member States as well as reporting on the results.
The NDA is required under the Directive’s Implementing Decision 2018/1524 to provide monitoring data in a national report to the European Commission every three years. This takes the form of the 'Monitoring Report for the EU Web Accessibility Directive'.
The NDA provide data gathered as part of the report to the relevant Departments and other public bodies. This in turn enables the public body to direct resources to address priority issues and to continuously measure issues and the accessibility of improvements.
The NDA completed Ireland’s most recent monitoring report under the Directive in December 2022. This indicated that improvements in accessibility are consistently being made, but significant efforts are still required across the public sector to improve the accessibility of websites and mobile applications. Its next monitoring report is due in December 2024.
The NDA also provides guidance on their website to aid public sector bodies in making websites and forms accessible. This includes the Accessibility Toolkit which helps to make services, buildings, information, and websites more accessible to customers with disabilities.
In 2023, current funding of €5.788 was provided to the NDA. In 2024 current funding was increased to €6.03m, recognising the increased demands on the Authority's functions, including its monitoring role.
