Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. I am asking for a discussion on the introduction of a digital accessibility grant to offer financial supports to enable companies to meet web content accessibility standards in the development of their websites and mobile applications. I will explain what digital accessibility is. It is the process of making the digital world, such as websites, mobile apps and other online tools, accessible to everyone. It is about ensuring that everyone in society can access the same information regardless of impairments or disabilities they may have. The difference an accessible website can make is huge. It means that someone who is visually impaired can shop, book flights or spend as much time as they want browsing through websites. They can research, study, communicate and work. They have the independence and autonomy to do something by themselves.

As the Minister knows, this country ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. The convention requires its parties to take appropriate measures to ensure that persons with disabilities have access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, transportation, information and communications, including information and communication technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open to or provided for the public, in both urban and rural areas. It has identified the need to create a legislative framework with concrete, enforceable and timebound benchmarks for monitoring the gradual implementation of accessibility. The EU has started this process by introducing the European Union (Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications of Public Sector Bodies) Regulations 2020. These regulations will be extended in June 2024 through a directive which will take in private bodies as well as public sector bodies.

There are 55,000 people in this country with a visual impairment. Over 30 million people in Europe have a visual impairment. We know there is a huge cost of having a disability but we must remember that these people are also consumers of products. They are taxpayers, and equal citizens looking for equity. Customers of accessible products and services and assistive technologies are faced with high prices due to limited competition among suppliers. This is an opportunity to do better for people with disabilities and for business, as it potentially opens up brand-new markets of consumers.

I ask the Minister to consider a proposal the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, NCBI, submitted to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment last year that a disability and accessibility grant be introduced, which would offer financial supports to enable companies to meet the web content accessibility standards. It may not be a legal requirement as yet for businesses, but it is an opportunity for businesses to do better and to include accessibility aspects in existing supports, such as the online training scheme or the digital transition fund.We can do a lot better. Irish businesses could be given the platform, capability and opportunity to lead the way in Europe.