Government Websites that Meet Standards for Access by Persons with Disabilities

Mr Leon Perera asked the Prime Minister (a) how many of the official websites of Ministries and statutory boards meet the WCAG 2.0 or other international standards for website accessibility by persons with disabilities (PWDs); and (b) what steps will be taken to ensure that Government websites are accessible to PWDs to the fullest extent possible.

The Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information and Education (Dr Janil Puthucheary) (for the Prime Minister): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 is the international standard for making web content more accessible to persons with disabilities (PWDs). It is adopted by various governments around the world, including Singapore. WCAG guidelines include the ability to resize websites' text without assistive technology, ensuring a minimum colour contrast ratio and providing captions for videos.

Our Government websites are required to satisfy the WCAG 2.0 requirements. The websites of agencies are audited for compliance against the standards. Over the past three years, 90% of the agencies' websites audited complied with the WCAG 2.0 requirements. Those who did not comply were required to improve their websites to the standards within several months.

During this FY2017, we will enhance the digital standards for our Government websites beyond WCAG 2.0, as we continue to raise their level of inclusivity and usability for more users. For example, we will incorporate the new Singapore Standard SS618 by SPRING, "Guidelines on User Interface Design for Older Adults", that aims to further enhance the online user experience of our websites, such as having audio captions in large font.

For citizens including PWDs who need further help to transact online, or who do not have Internet access, Citizen Connect Centres (CCCs) have been set up at various Community Centres/Clubs to assist them in this regard. In addition, some of the CCCs have features such as elderly-friendly touch screen interfaces and height-adjustable kiosks for wheelchair users.

Mr Leon Perera (Non-Constituency Member): I thank the Senior Minister of State for the very clear reassurance. Just a very quick clarification. I take it that 100% of the Government and Statutory Boards websites are compliant with this standard. Can we infer that from the Senior Minister of State's answer? At the present point in time, 100% of Government and Statutory Board websites are compliant with the WCAG 2.0 standard?

Dr Janil Puthucheary: Mr Speaker, Sir, it is hard to be absolutely sure that 100% of every single webpage in the Public Sector is compliant at this point in time, because there are continually updates that is, new pages, new sites, new services, just as some sites are taken down.

The audit is on-going. On a cyclical basis, we will get through all the agencies' websites. Over the last three years, 90% were compliant and those that we detected that were not compliant, they became compliant. I have a reasonably high assurance that almost all our Government websites are compliant. If there are any that the Member comes across that are not compliant, please direct them to us and we will help to ensure that they become compliant.