Accessibility statement

Statement of commitment

We are committed to making this website accessible in accordance with S.I. 358/2020.

We are committed to achieving AA standard under WCAG 2.1 guidelines.

This accessibility statement applies to this site only - not other government sites or subdomains.

Compliance status

This website is currently mostly compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines.

Non-accessible content

PDFs: Many documents are published as PDFs - which are less accessible than HTML pages for people using assistive technologies. Some of the issues with PDFs include:

  • The fact that they are not bookmarked ( WCAG guideline 2.4.5 )
  • Tables in PDFs are not defined ( WCAG guideline 1.3.1 )

This content is not an exhaustive list of non-accessible content.

Exempted content

PDF documents that were published before 23 September 2018 are exempt from these guidelines except where it is related to a service that a member of the public has to use.

Videos or audio published before 23 September 2020 are exempt from these guidelines.

How we test the services.gov.ie site

We use the WCAG level AA guidelines to test how accessible gov.ie is. We used the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach to assess the site.

We have completed accessibility audits and have carried out user testing on the site. We will continue to do this - particularly once we can carry out in-person testing again.

We regularly engage with the National Disability Authority who are the monitoring body for accessibility of public sector websites in Ireland are subject to annual audits every year.

How we are going to improve accessibility on this website

  • We are going to make photo-descriptions mandatory on the website and carry out regular spot-checks on photos across all departments on a quarterly basis
  • We will continue to work with units to make sure they are publishing HTML pages instead of less accessible formats like PDF
  • We will continue to insist that users use plain English to describe services members of the public will rely on feedback and contact information

Each department is responsible for its own content on this website.

If you have any complaints about the accessibility of content used on a department's site - then you can contact the relevant Disability Access Officer in each department.

Escalation of a complaint

If you are not happy with the department's response then you can make a complaint to the Ombudsman under the Disability Act.

This statement was last updated on 31 March 2025.