Digital Accessibility Toolkit project

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Purpose

Collaborate on the creation of a platform to centralize Government of Canada (GC) information on accessibility.

The Access Working Group (AWG) would like to enable interdepartmental centralization and sharing of accessibility information produced by GC departments in a central repository sharing space and in the open.

• Digital Accessibility Toolkit (DAT) Task Force - Terms of Reference
• Digital Accessibility Toolkit - Github repository

Sharing

The Digital Accessibility Toolkit (DAT) will focus on:

• Sharing accessibility resources and work in a central repository;
• Centralization of information relating to accessibility;
• Collaboration between departments in the open;
• Reducing time and money spent duplicating or searching for other Government of Canada (GC) departments accessibility work; and
• Promoting the accessibility work that we do in the GC on a public space.
• Working in the open

Task force’s key role

The Digital Accessibility Toolkit (DAT) will leverage accessibility expertise across government, showcase best practices, and promote inclusive design and be accessible by default.

The Digital Accessibility Toolkit (DAT) will also:

1. Support the Public Service Accessibility Strategy’s Goal 3: Make information and communications technology usable by all;
2. Provide recommendations for the creation of the accessibility resources and work from Government of Canada (GC) central repository;
3. Supporting the implementation through various phases of work; and
4. Discussion and initiate supporting activities to identify which information / materials would be appropriate to share.

Roles and responsibilities

The key roles will be defined based on the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) ARRM Project - Accessibility Roles and Responsibilities Mapping project.

Mandate and decision-making authority

The Digital Accessibility Toolkit (DAT) is a recommendation-making forum that has a mandate to:

• position the Government of Canada (GC) to meet or exceed Information and Communications Technology obligations of the Accessible Canada Act and the goal of the Accessibility Strategy for the Public Service of Canada to "make information and communications technology usable by all";
• make recommendations for a GC central repository to share accessibility information created by various GC departments, minimizing duplication of work across departments
• improve consistency of accessibility and identify best practices for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) accessibility information;
• increase awareness across participating departments through the Access Working Group (AWG) and Interdepartmental ICT working Group;
• leverage expertise, foster information flow, and broaden knowledge across the GC; and
• make recommendations for future phases of the project -- for example expanding access to other jurisdictions that are collaborating with the GC on ICT accessibility.