Ensuring High Traffic Government Websites Conform to WCAG 2.1 and Getting Buy-in from Digital Space Stakeholders
Ministry of Digital Development and InformationSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Ms See Jinli Jean’s inquiry on training practitioners for WCAG 2.1 AA compliance by 2030 and encouraging private sector accessibility adoption. Minister Mrs Josephine Teo stated the Government will engage local designers through workshops and training to ensure all high-traffic Government websites meet international standards. For non-Government entities, she highlighted the open-source Oobee testing tool and the May 2024 launch of the Co-Creation Lab to facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogue. This lab involves agencies, private firms, and persons with disabilities to improve digital service design through shared user insights. The Ministry will continue these collaborations to raise awareness and ensure digital spaces are accessible to all.
Transcript
25 Ms See Jinli Jean asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) what is the Ministry's present steps and future plans to train and involve the local creative practitioners in its goal of ensuring that all high traffic Government websites will conform to the international Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at the AA level by 2030; and (b) how is the Ministry encouraging the adoption of such accessibility standards by digital spaces that are run by non-Governmental and private sector entities.
Mrs Josephine Teo: The Government plans to make all high-traffic Government websites1 accessible by 2030. To do this, we will engage and work with local design practitioners, as needed. This includes getting feedback on the design of Government digital services and organising workshops and trainings for design professionals.
We agree that non-Government entities should also improve the accessibility of their digital services. The Government provides support in various ways. For example, the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) has developed the Oobee tool, previously known as Purple A11y, which is an open-source web accessibility testing tool. This is freely available for use.
GovTech has also launched the Co-Creation Lab during the A11y week in May 2024, which brought together representatives from Government agencies, the private sector as well as community users, to better understand accessibility-related challenges. The first run of the Co-Creation Lab brought together 95 representatives from the Government agencies and the private sector, such as banks and e-commerce firms, as well as users from the senior and persons with disabilities (PWDs) communities. This multi-stakeholder dialogue has enhanced the product teams' understanding of diverse user needs, including those of PWDs and seniors, and yielded valuable insights that will directly inform the development of current and future digital services from both the public and private sectors.
We will continue to build on these efforts and engage with the private sector and community partners to raise awareness, facilitate knowledge sharing and encourage efforts to make non-Government digital services accessible to all Singaporeans.