Although there are a number of places who have adopted different standards into their accessibility laws, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines remain the most well-known and have been named as the guidelines to follow in countries all around the world. This blog contains an overview of what digital accessibility regulations look like worldwide.
In Ireland, we have numerous bodies with various responsibilities and powers, all of which are intended to deliver safe and efficient services to us. These are the regulators and the ombudsmen, yet they continue to fail the 600,000 people who make up the disability community of Ireland.
Access to education is a fundamental right for everyone in Ireland. However, in 2016, the national census showed that only 13% of people in Ireland with a disability were in education. Of these, only 20% completed higher level education.
This report was commissioned by the country’s national sight loss charity, NCBI, and entails how accessible Ireland’s digital world is based on manual accessibility audits performed by the staff of IA Labs. Research and write-up of the index was carried out from February to October 2023.
On the 27th of April 2022, IA Labs released the Irish Digital Accessibility Index as part of their official company launch. The index, which was commissioned and is fully endorsed by the NCBI, is the result of months of hard work recording how accessible – or inaccessible – Ireland’s technology space is so far.
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