Malcolm Byrne
Question:182. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Social Protection how he ensures that all websites operated by his Department are accessible to the visually impaired. [4824/26]
View answerWednesday, 21 January 2026
Questions (182)
Written answers
My Department is committed to ensuring that websites operated by it are accessible to all, regardless of ability. In order to achieve this, we have designed our websites to follow guidelines set out by the W3C (the World Wide Web Consortium). The W3C WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) produces accessibility guidelines that are an internationally recognised benchmark of accessibility.
MyWelfare is committed to achieving WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 Level AA standard of accessibility and is currently partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 and WCAG 2.2 Level AA guidelines. WelfarePartners is currently complying with WCAG 2.0 Level AA guidelines. As new services are designed and built on both platforms, rigorous accessibility testing is completed to ensure that the service meets necessary accessibility standards, with any issues that may be found during that testing addressed. The testing approach includes running automated tests, manually checking against WCAG criteria, and testing with assistive technology such as screen readers/NVDA.
Our online HR careers portal conforms with the WCAG 2.1 Level AA to ensure accessibility for all candidates. JobsIreland.ie, the Department’s free online recruitment platform, is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA. The Department is currently procuring a new JobsIreland.ie service, and this will meet all accessibility standards using an Accessibility by Design approach.
My Department publishes information on schemes and services on the cross government platform gov.ie. This site meets the WCAG 2.1 AA international accessibility standards, and work is underway to transition to WCAG 2.2 AA. The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) manages the technical platform and centrally maintained content and my Department is responsible for publishing our own material and working to ensure accessibility of this information.
Our approach to content development on all platforms reflects the accessibility standards, aligned with those set out by OGCIO:
• Using Plain English
• Ensuring the hierarchy of headings is logical and consistent
• Using alt text on all images so they can be understood by those using screen readers,
• Colour contrast
• Choosing HTML over PDFs whenever possible
• Requirements for all videos to be captioned
Gov.ie accessibility is monitored continuously through automated testing, manual reviews and the regular audits carried out by the National Disability Authority (NDA) under the statutory monitoring framework. Accessibility statements are kept up to date, and any issues identified through audits or user feedback are addressed. Recent NDA assessments confirmed full compliance for gov.ie in the simplified review and a high score in the in-depth review. This places gov.ie among the most accessible public-service websites in Ireland. To support high-quality user experience for visually impaired users, the OGCIO applies accessibility best practice, including compatibility with screen readers, maintaining appropriate colour contrast, and ensuring that all gov.ie enabled services can be operated using keyboard-only navigation.
The Department of Social Protection continues to work to improve the accessibility of our information and services and welcomes user feedback in order to help us to maintain and improve accessibility in our communications.