Nurturing Expertise
To inculcate digital accessibility as part of the skill set and professional ethics of ICT practitioners, the DPO invited higher education institutions to incorporate digital accessibility in their ICT curriculum.
Organising Recognition Scheme
Nowadays, the Internet permeates every aspect of our daily life, allowing people to access information and services online, and interact with each other anytime anywhere. Making websites and mobile applications accessible not only facilitates everyone including disability groups, but also helps facilitating business development and building an inclusive society.
Since 2013, Digital Policy Office (DPO) (formerly known as the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer before the merger) and the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) have joined hands to organise four rounds of Web Accessibility Recognition Scheme (Scheme) to encourage local enterprises and organisations to adopt accessibility design in their websites and mobile applications.
Starting from 2018, the Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited (HKIRC) has taken up to organise the Web Accessibility Recognition Scheme while DPO serves as the co-organiser and EOC as the independent advisor. It is expected that HKIRC can leverage on its extensive customer network to more effectively promote the adoption of accessibility design in websites and mobile applications by enterprises and organisations. The scheme has been renamed from the "Web Accessibility Recognition Scheme" to the "Digital Accessibility Recognition Scheme" from 2024, provide free assessment and advisory services to all participating organisations, and organise briefing sessions for different sectors of the community to promote the concepts and technical requirements of digital accessibility design. Please visit www.digital-accessibility.hk for details.
By incorporating digital accessibility design, organisations would:
- Comply with the legal requirement on protection against disability discrimination
- Fulfill social responsibility and project positive corporate image
- Reach more customers by making online services easy-to-use and easy-to-search by everyone
- Make online services easier-to-maintain by adopting the good coding practices of digital accessibility design
- Contribute to building a caring and inclusive society
