Accessibility and inclusivity
Accessibility is the result of inclusive design. Agencies must work to meet the basic level required to provide a better experience for people using your services.
Our users
We need to include and learn from people with different perspectives and abilities. We will then be able to design ways for them to access our services, so no one is excluded.
Factors like age, disability, linguistic diversity and literacy level all impact on whether our customers can access information and use the service.
Our users include:
- speakers of other languages, who may be using translation software
- users with low literacy levels
- users with a disability
- users on mobile or tablet devices
- users with poor internet connections
- users who are unable to access or act on digital information
- time-poor users who need an answer to their question.
Who's responsible
Digital inclusion isn't the responsibility of one person. We should think of our users as people of all abilities, while the product is still a concept.
Product and project managers should factor in accessibility and inclusivity in the service design from the start.
Each person on your team needs to understand how they might avoid making something inaccessible. User researchers and usability testers can uncover accessibility problems, so the rest of the team can remove them.
Why you need to do this
The NSW Disability Inclusion Plan aligns with:
- National Disability Strategy
- our obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, all agencies must provide information and services in a way that is accessible and doesn't discriminate. We need to make it easy for everyone to be able to understand our services and interact with us online. We need to give fast and clear access to all our users at any time, on any device.
Meet WCAG standard
Comply with level AA of WCAG's current standard and test for compliance.
eastTest with assistive technologies
Usability testing to include screen readers, screen magnifiers and speech recognition tools.
eastResearch and test with diverse users
Includes diverse needs such as ability, age, literacy and numeracy levels, device and location.
eastWrite in plain English
Aim for age 9 reading level or for advanced technical language, ages 12 to 14.
eastPDFs and other types of content
Only use an accessible PDF alongside an HTML-equivalent or summary.
eastSupport and solutions
A collation of third party site links that you may find useful in getting started.
eastSimple Accessibility Checklist
Use the Simple Accessibility Checklist as a quick and easy way to check the accessibility health of your product or service.
east