Accessibility and Inclusive Design
Resources to guide and support accessible and inclusive awareness and design
What is accessibility and inclusion?
Accessibility is about ensuring systems are designed so everyone can fully participate in public or professional life, while inclusion means everyone has the resources and opportunities they need to participate.
The Government requires the Australian Public Service (APS) provide accessible services to people living with a temporary or permanent disability. This is a requirement under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1
Why is it important?
According to the Bureau of Statistics:
- 4.4 million (just under 1 in 5) Australians are living with disability.
- 3.9 million (about 1 in 6) Australians aged 65 years and over.
- Permanent disability and changing abilities due to ageing can make it difficult to use digital services.
People from a diverse range of backgrounds, abilities, locations, work, contexts, demographics and needs work in the APS. When systems are accessible and inclusive by design, all people can understand, navigate and interact with the experience in their own way.
Everyone has a basic right to access Government services and information.
Below are resources which will help you to embed accessibility and inclusion into your everyday life in the APS.
Resources
Tools and templates
Accessibility posters – designing for accessibility – UK Government
Six different posters on the dos and don’ts of designing for accessibility in the areas of: low vision, deaf or hard of hearing, dyslexia, motor disabilities, users on the autistic spectrum and users of screen readers.
Accessibility Toolkit – Vision Australia
The Vision Australia Accessibility Toolkit provides information to help you understand accessibility requirements and provides a range of resources to support you to create accessible and inclusive information, particularly for blindness and low vision.
APS Learning Quality Framework - Four Principles of WCAG - design tips
Information on the four principles of WCAG, including tips on how to design web content to ensure that it is perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.
APS Learning Quality Framework – GovTEAMS site
The APS Learning Quality Framework GovTEAMS site is for sharing case studies, examples, tools, templates and research to support inclusive design.
Australian Government Style Manual - Accessible and inclusive content
Accessibility is a mandatory standard for government agencies. Understand agency responsibilities and commitments and access guidance on designing accessible and inclusive content that is respectful of our diverse nation.
Colour Contrast Checker
The colour contrast checker is a tool to test the contrast suitability of background colour and foreground text, to ensure your design colours meet the WCAG contrast ratio formula test.
Colour Palette Builder
The accessible colour palette builder is a tool to help you design accessible digital content in colour combinations that are suitable for people with visual impairments or colour vision deficiencies.
Creating Accessible Word Documents
This APS Academy factsheet presents some helpful tips on improving the accessibility of your publications, for both print and reading online.
Digital Transformation Agency - Digital Service Standard on accessibility
Find information on why accessibility is in the Digital Service Standard and how you can meet the Standard through applying accessibility principles in the Discovery, Alpha and Beta stages of design.
Inclusive Learning Design Handbook
The FLOE Inclusive Learning Design Handbook is designed to assist in creating adaptable and personalised resources that can accommodate a diversity of learning preferences and individual needs. It offers guidance whether you are creating simple text-based resources, animations, applets, simulations or full production videos.
Inclusive Online Workshops and Meetings – tips and tricks
This draft guide developed by members of the Australian Public Service and community members provides tips on how to run inclusive and welcoming online workshops and meetings.
Online Accessibility Toolkit – Government of South Australia
An award-winning Online Accessibility Toolkit developed by the South Australian Government. It provides best-practice guidelines, policies, resources and tools to support users in various job roles to ensure accessibility is considered in design.
Online Accessibility Toolkit – video
A short video developed by the Government of South Australia on how (and why) the Online Accessibility Toolkit was created.
PowerPoint presentations – make presentations accessible
Step-by-step instructions and best practices for making your PowerPoint presentations accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.
WCAG 2.1 AA Checklist
A checklist for designing, producing and procuring content that supports accessible quality learning and development in the APS. Included are links to information and free online tools that allow you to check content is compliant with the WCAG standards.