Purpose
This is the Victorian Government accessible communication policy. In this document it will be referred to as 'the policy'.
The policy sets out the rules for communicating in a clear and direct way that is easy to understand. This is so that all Victorians – no matter their ability – have equal access to Victorian Government information.
Scope
The policy applies to all Victorian Public Service and Special bodies as defined by the Public Administration Act 2004 (Vic). This includes decision makers, workforce participants, employees, contractors, consultants, IT vendors, volunteers and any individuals or groups undertaking activity for or on behalf of the body.
In the policy, we call all workplace participants ‘staff’.
This policy is relevant to staff working in all disciplines. It is not a policy just for communications staff although they are a good place to go to if you have questions on the policy.
This policy applies to all internal and external communication and information sharing activities including:
- public-facing websites, subsites, intranets and extranets
- social media
- multimedia (video, audio, still images)
- digital content creation
- advertising (radio, TV, print, online, outdoor etc.)
- newsletters and EDMs (electronic direct mail)
- media releases if they are published online
- documents and presentations (PDFs, Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
- online forms and surveys
- closed client systems (learning management system, payment gateways)
- public-facing native apps.
Content in scope
This policy only applies to content published (online or in print) after the policy takes effect.
Every two years, each department or agency will review their intranet and websites. During this review, they will assess existing content against this policy and update, remove or archive it.
Content and publications created before this policy was introduced, like old annual reports, are not required to follow it. However, no other exceptions apply.
Updated