The Northern Ireland Assembly Commission
Draft Disability Action Plan 2025-2030

1. Deliver staff training to ensure staff understand the requirements relating to disability equality legislation and disability awareness.

Ensure staff are up to date with required disability training, how it relates to their work and the importance of being treated with dignity, fairness, equality, and respect.

Development of an eLearning course on Disability Awareness co-produced with disabled people.

Over the lifetime of the plan.

Learning and Development.

Equality Unit.

Monitoring records show training has been delivered to all staff.

Evaluation of training shows increase in staff knowledge of disability legislation and related issues. 

2.Offer staff Masterclasses focusing on a range of disabilities.

To raise staff awareness on a range of disabilities and how they impact on people’s lives.

Evaluation of Masterclasses shows increase in staff awareness and knowledge. 

Over the lifetime of the Action Plan.

Learning and Development.

3. All Education and Youth Assembly Officers complete the course ‘Developing SEND^[1] Inclusive Learning with Confidence’.

Ensure staff are trained in delivery of Educational programmes to SEND groups.

Staff feedback on the value of the course and their preparedness to cater for SEND groups.

All Education and Youth Assembly Officers will have completed training by March 2026.

Education Service and Youth Assembly.

4.Continue to deliver training, and provide guidance, to ensure staff who are content creators/publishers, understand online accessibility and compliance with the requirements set out in relevant regulations^[2].

To ensure that staff, who are content creators/publishers, are aware of the latest accessibility guidance and know how to apply it in their work.

All staff involved in creating content or online publishing are offered training.

Over the lifetime of the plan.

Communications Office.

Monitoring records show training has been delivered to relevant staff.

Video guides, advice, and guidance are made available on intranet for all staff and updated as required.

Over the lifetime of the plan.

General awareness training on online accessibility is offered once a year to all staff.

Monitoring records show that awareness training has been delivered to interested staff.

Annually.

Evaluation of training shows increase in staff knowledge.

Specialised accessibility training is provided to CMS^[3] editors in web team.

Monitoring records show training has been delivered to all relevant staff.

As and when required.

Evaluation of training shows increase in staff knowledge of accessibility best practice. 

5. Continually improve the accessibility of our website and digital offerings, and strive for compliance with accessibility regulations.

Complete the website redevelopment project by March 2026 with the aim of addressing potential accessibility barriers^[4] and creating a site which allows all users to perceive, understand, navigate, interact with and contribute to the site.

Track and consider 80% of user-reported accessibility issues within a 3-month timeframe.

Development stage commenced in Autumn 2024.

Communications Office.

Consider the top 5 most frequently accessed pages with accessibility barriers with a view to addressing the issues if possible.

Every six months.

Conduct annual accessibility audits using tools like WebAIM WAVE to measure against WCAG 2.2 AA standards. Record and report any issues to the IS Office for development support.

Annually.

Update website accessibility statement annually based on audit results.

Annually.

Investigate the feasibility of a Content Strategy to accompany the website redevelopment project that provides direction on how to standardise and present all published information in a more user-friendly and accessible manner for all users.

Establish the parameters for the formulation of a content strategy.

In line with the lifetime of the website redevelopment project.

Produce a paper with recommendations for Heads of Business.

Establish resource implications to deliver the content strategy recommendations.

6. Communicating the work of the Assembly.

 Provide sign language interpretation for the Northern Ireland Assembly Question Time and occasional special events.

Sign language interpretation (British Sign Language, BSL & Irish Sign Language, ISL) is provided for at one Northern Ireland Assembly Question Time per week, with Question Time to The Executive Office (TEO) always to be interpreted; and that certain special events, such as the first sittings in a new mandate, are sign language interpreted (subject to availability).

Over the lifetime of the plan.

Parliamentary Services.

The new Assembly website will be compliant with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Manual accessibility website audit conducted.

Two yearly over the lifetime of the plan (2026, 2028 and 2030).

Communications Office.

7. Monitor feedback from the visitor experience in Parliament Buildings with a focus on customer service, public facilities and accessibility to Assembly business.

The Visitor Survey is mainstreamed across services which interface with the public in order to collect data to inform access and service provision.

Visitor survey feedback considered and action taken as appropriate.

Every six months.

RaISe has responsibility for the analysis of survey responses.

Public Engagement to forward any issues raised to relevant business area.

8. Identify opportunities to promote positive attitudes of disability through images on the Assembly website, on social media and in Assembly publications. 

We will have a corporate approach to the use of staff and visitor images which promote positive attitudes towards disabled people.

Review of images used in Assembly communications to ensure they are representative of people in the community and, where possible, of people engaging with, or participating in, Assembly Commission services, including those with a disability.

Ongoing over the lifetime of the Action Plan.

Communications Office.

9. Awareness days (including those related to particular disabilities) to be marked/celebrated by the Assembly Commission, including annual plan of engagement events.

To mark awareness days over the course of the action plan with the aim of raising awareness of particular disabilities as well as demonstrating how people can participate in the work of the Assembly. A targeted approach will be adopted to identify the most relevant awareness days.

Awareness days will be delivered on an annual basis. 

Annually.

Public Engagement.

10. Continue to encourage SEN^[5] schools, and mainstream schools with SEN pupils, to take part in the education programmes.

Offer inclusive and bespoke activities suitable for pupils. 

Increased number of SEN schools and pupils taking part in education programmes either through a visit to Parliament Buildings, a virtual session or an outreach session.

Over the lifetime of the plan.

Education Service.

Develop more visual/sensory resources for children with special educational needs.

Positive feedback from teachers.

11. Deliver accessible tours of Parliament Buildings.

To provide people with additional needs the opportunity to take part in a tour of Parliament Buildings.

Increased delivery of specific accessible tours.

Over the lifetime of the plan.

Public Engagement.

Over the course of the plan measure uptake of these tours.

Corporate Strategy 2023-2028 High Level Objective: Make the work of the Assembly more accessible

Area: Awards, Accreditations and Standards

Action

Aims and Objectives

Measurable Outputs

Timescale

Lead Business Area

12. Maintain Autism Friendly Award.

To show our commitment to ensuring that Parliament Buildings is a welcoming place for autistic people and their families.

Standards met as required.

Annually.

Facilities.

13. Work with RNID and
others to provide accessible services for service users who are deaf or with hearing loss.

To show commitment to improving access to Parliament Buildings for people with deafness, tinnitus and hearing loss.

Annual review of disability access audit (2024) findings.

Annually.

Facilities.

14. Maintain membership of the Disability Confident Scheme. Disability Confident is a government scheme that encourages employers to recruit, retain and develop disabled people.

To ensure that, as an employer, we continue to enable disabled people to have the opportunity to fulfil their potential.  

Membership of the Disability Confident Scheme is maintained.

2025.

Human Resources Office.

15. Maintain JAM (Just a Minute) Card standards.

To make Parliament Buildings a welcoming place for people with a learning difficulty, autism or a communication barrier.

Renew JAM card license each year.

Over the lifetime of the plan.

Learning and Development.

Ensure new employees complete the JAM card e-learning course.

16. Continue to engage with our External Disability Advisory Group (EDAG). EDAG is made up of practitioners and representatives from the disability sector who assist with the development and implementation of the Disability Action Plan.

Engagement and participation of disabled people and their representative groups continues to inform the implementation of the Disability Action Plan.

Full meeting of the Group is held once or twice a year (or as agreed by the Group) and separate meetings on particular initiatives/issues are held as required.

Meetings arranged as required throughout the lifetime of the Action Plan.

Equality Unit.

Membership is reviewed every two years to ensure a full range of disability organisations are represented on the Group. 

Review of membership carried out every two years: by June 2027 and 30 June 2029.

17. Continue to provide short-term supported placements for people with a disability under the Apprenticeship and Placement Framework.

To provide opportunities for people with a disability to develop their skills and confidence in the workplace and gain meaningful work experience.

Further short-term supported placements are facilitated during the lifetime of the Plan.

First placement to be facilitated by 31 March 2026 and further placement by 31 March 2028.

Human Resources Office.

18. Hold a Disability Parliament as part of a series of citizens parliaments.

To afford people with Disabilities the opportunity to have their voices heard on issues that are important to them.

Annual Parliament for People with Disabilities is held.

Annually.

Public Engagement.

19. Young people with disabilities are represented on the Northern Ireland Youth Assembly.

To ensure the Northern Ireland Youth Assembly is representative of the youth population of Northern Ireland.

Young people with disabilities are represented on the Northern Ireland Youth Assembly.

Throughout the lifetime of the DAP. Youth Assembly recruitment happens every 2 years (2025, 2027, and 2029).

Youth Assembly.

To ensure that the voices of young people with disabilities are heard in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

20. Ensure staff are kept up to date on progress on new Disability Action Plan.

To raise staff awareness of the work the Assembly Commission is doing on disability and of wider disability issues.

Once the Plan is approved, staff are kept informed on progress on the results of the consultation; where to find the final agreed Plan and what the Plan contains.

May 2025.

Equality Unit.

Staff are notified by email of availability of six-monthly updates on the website.

Bi-annually.

21. Report on progress to Senior Management Team (SMT) every six months and the Assembly Commission every year.

To ensure that we deliver on the targets in our plan and that we keep staff and the public informed of progress.

Following consultation with business areas, six-monthly updates are prepared for SMT and annual updates for the Assembly Commission.

Bi-annually.

Equality Unit.

Approved six-monthly updates are published on the Assembly website.

Bi-annually.

22. Report on progress yearly to the Equality Commission.

To ensure that we deliver on the targets in our plan and that we keep the Equality Commission informed of progress. 

Following approval by SMT and the Assembly Commission, annual progress reports are prepared and submitted to the Equality Commission.

June each year (ECNI deadline for submission is 31 August each year).

Equality Unit.

Following a meeting with the Equality Commission to discuss annual report content, reports are published on the Assembly website.

October each year.

23. Carry out a five-year review of our Disability Action Plan.

To review our plan to make sure it is effective and achieves what it sets out to do. 

Review of the Disability Action Plan is carried out, in consultation with business areas, and presented to SMT and the Assembly Commission.

2030.

Equality Unit.

Once approved, the review is published online.  Email is issued to staff and stakeholders to inform them the review is available. 

2030.