Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the level of compliance of Departments with their duty under the Equality Act 2010 to provide accessible documents for disabled people.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Monitoring of compliance with the Equality Act 2010 is a matter for individual departments.
The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) is working with external stakeholders to review and bring up to date guidance on accessible communications. The guidance will cover language, communications channels and accessible formats for publications, meetings and consultations. The guidance is aimed at supporting government communicators to help all parts of government improve their communications with disabled people. This updated guidance will be available by Spring 2019.
The Government Digital Service (GDS) helps departments to ensure their online content and services are accessible. GDS sets standards, provides assurance around these (through spend control and service assessment processes), publishes guidance on how to meet the standard (e.g. service manual), develops tools to do this well and quickly (e.g. Government as a Platform components, toolkits and patterns), and supports the departments in using them, collating and curating lessons learned.
New Regulations will enhance this activity through the introduction of a central monitoring system and increased guidance and support for public sector bodies. Cabinet Office introduced The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. These regulations build on existing equalities legislation by making it easier for users to report issues about the accessibility of public sector websites, backed up by proportionate monitoring and enforcement. GDS supports departmental compliance with the regulations and produces guidance and training, including on how to make documents accessible.
Within the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), the Minister for Disabled People also convenes a cross sector group on accessible communications.