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Criterion 3 - Protect users
Establish and maintain a safe digital environment that counters scams and misinformation, and provides transparency, and a feedback mechanism.
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Criterion 4 - Make it accessible
Comply with all current legislation and standards relating to accessibility, and ensure from the outset that your service is accessible.
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Criterion 5 - Provide flexibility and choice
Create seamless experiences between service delivery channels, and provide flexibility and choice for how users engage with digital services.
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Guidance and resources
First-nations-digital-inclusion-plan-2023-2026_0.pdf (niaa.gov.au)
Disability Strategy | Department of Social Services, Australian Government (dss.gov.au)
What do we mean by diversity and inclusion? | vic.gov.au (www.vic.gov.au)
Co-design | vic.gov.au (www.vic.gov.au)
Research with diverse user groups to improve a product or service | vic.gov.au (www.vic.gov.au)
Inclusive design | Digital.NSW
Good Practice Guidelines for Engaging with People with Disability | Disability Gateway
Inclusive design embraces broad diversity to meet the varied needs and perspectives of a wide range of user groups.
Criterion 1 – Embrace diversity
Criterion 2. Know your user

Criterion 2
Criterion 3. Leave no one behind

Criterion 3
Your responsibilities
To successfully meet this criterion, agencies will need to:
- understand the diversity of your users
- comply with legislation and standards, including the:
  - Disability Discrimination Act 1992
  - latest version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
  - Australian Government Style Manual
- implement a feedback mechanism.
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Apply Criterion 3 during the Discovery and Alpha phases and build upon the understanding of users developed in Criterion 2 (‘Know your user’). This criterion will extend outcomes to cater for the needs and unique challenges facing different user groups.
Adhere to this criterion in all phases of the Service design and delivery process to keep up with changing user needs.

Who are the users that will use the service?
Which types, if any, are disproportionately affected?
How can agencies track impact on different types of users?
What cultural, language, access or socioeconomic barriers need to be planned for?
How will agencies make the service inclusive and accessible for all?
How are the voices of marginalised and vulnerable users being heard?
How will the service be available for people who can’t use digital?
Can existing inequalities be prevented in a digital world?

Disability Discrimination Act (1992)
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
WCAG 2 Overview
Australian Government Style Manual
First Nations digital inclusion plan
Accessibility Toolkit – Vision Australia
Dos and don’ts on designing for accessibility – Accessibility in government (blog.gov.uk)
Four Principles of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (apsacademy.gov.au)
Online Accessibility Toolkit | Online Accessibility Toolkit
Accessibility and Inclusivity Toolkit – NSW Government
A deliberate effort to challenge assumptions and design for marginalised users will ensure your service is inclusive, accessible and useful for all.
Understand the diversity of your users

Conduct segmented user research: Go broad and deep on the learnings from Criterion 2 (‘Know your user’) by conducting targeted and ethical user research. Assess edge-cases to ensure your service captures and responds to unique circumstances and needs.
Use data-driven insights: Collect and analyse information about your different users to understand the different barriers they might experience when using your service. Eliminate these barriers through design and validate your solutions’ effectiveness with real-world users.
Include non-digital users: Test how easily users can access your service to understand the impact of the digital divide. Ensure those users have a voice in decisions affecting them. Design omni-channel pathways that cater to non-digital access and experiences that some users rely on to access government services.
Form partnerships: Where some types of users are under-represented in research or may require different or tailored approaches to reach and engage with, collaborate with other agencies, community groups or the private and not-for-profit sector to reach them.
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Conduct segmented user research: Go broad and deep on the learnings from Criterion 2 (‘Know your user’) by conducting targeted and ethical user research. Assess edge-cases to ensure your service captures and responds to unique circumstances and needs.
Use data-driven insights: Collect and analyse information about your different users to understand the different barriers they might experience when using your service. Eliminate these barriers through design and validate your solutions’ effectiveness with real-world users.
Include non-digital users: Test how easily users can access your service to understand the impact of the digital divide. Ensure those users have a voice in decisions affecting them. Design omni-channel pathways that cater to non-digital access and experiences that some users rely on to access government services.
Form partnerships: Where some types of users are under-represented in research or may require different or tailored approaches to reach and engage with, collaborate with other agencies, community groups or the private and not-for-profit sector to reach them.
Comply with legislation and standards

Use existing standards as your baseline: Comply with legislation and standards to ensure your service uses best practice and meets the expectations for government services. Consider any specific legislation or policies relevant to your service as well as the Disability Discrimination Act (1992), the latest version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and should consider the government’s Style Manual.
Offer content in alternate formats: Offer content in different mediums (such as text, images and audio) and segment long documents or tutorials into chunks. Provide human-validated multilingual support for critical information. Evaluate your service with users who depend on assistive technology, integrate their feedback and resolve pain-points through design.
Consider different platforms: Prior to launch, comprehensively test your service across devices and platforms your users will access it through. Anticipate how content will appear on different devices in your designs and assess whether platform-specific interfaces either support or fail to meet accessibility standards.
Design for affordability and connectivity: Design and develop your service to use as little bandwidth and data as possible. Where it suits the service, make it cache for offline access or offer downloadable, print-friendly versions of critical content.
Use accessible language: Use plain language in both your content and user interface to ensure your service is usable by all. Replace niche terminology or jargon with widely understood terms. Always adhere to the government’s Style Manual and plain language guidance.
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Use existing standards as your baseline: Comply with legislation and standards to ensure your service uses best practice and meets the expectations for government services. Consider any specific legislation or policies relevant to your service as well as the Disability Discrimination Act (1992), the latest version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and should consider the government’s Style Manual.
Offer content in alternate formats: Offer content in different mediums (such as text, images and audio) and segment long documents or tutorials into chunks. Provide human-validated multilingual support for critical information. Evaluate your service with users who depend on assistive technology, integrate their feedback and resolve pain-points through design.
Consider different platforms: Prior to launch, comprehensively test your service across devices and platforms your users will access it through. Anticipate how content will appear on different devices in your designs and assess whether platform-specific interfaces either support or fail to meet accessibility standards.
Design for affordability and connectivity: Design and develop your service to use as little bandwidth and data as possible. Where it suits the service, make it cache for offline access or offer downloadable, print-friendly versions of critical content.
Use accessible language: Use plain language in both your content and user interface to ensure your service is usable by all. Replace niche terminology or jargon with widely understood terms. Always adhere to the government’s Style Manual and plain language guidance.
Implement a feedback mechanism

Incorporate feedback: Offer users the ability to provide feedback, report issues and suggest service improvements. Promptly act on feedback and provide a timely, transparent response describing how it’s being actioned.
Raise awareness of your service: Plan an ongoing awareness campaign and deploy it across a variety of channels to reach your users. Consider training your frontline staff so they can inform, suggest or demonstrate the service to people.
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Test
Test
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Incorporate feedback: Offer users the ability to provide feedback, report issues and suggest service improvements. Promptly act on feedback and provide a timely, transparent response describing how it’s being actioned.
Raise awareness of your service: Plan an ongoing awareness campaign and deploy it across a variety of channels to reach your users. Consider training your frontline staff so they can inform, suggest or demonstrate the service to people.
Your responsibilities
To successfully meet this criterion, agencies will need to:
understand the diversity of your users
comply with legislation and standards, including the:
Disability Discrimination Act 1992
latest version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
Australian Government Style Manual
implement a feedback mechanism.
When to apply
Apply Criterion 3 during the Discovery and Alpha phases and build upon the understanding of users developed in Criterion 2 (‘Know your user’). This criterion will extend outcomes to cater for the needs and unique challenges facing different user groups.
Adhere to this criterion in all phases of the Service design and delivery process to keep up with changing user needs.
Questions for consideration
Who are the users that will use the service?
Which types, if any, are disproportionately affected?
How can agencies track impact on different types of users?
What cultural, language, access or socioeconomic barriers need to be planned for?
How will agencies make the service inclusive and accessible for all?
How are the voices of marginalised and vulnerable users being heard?
How will the service be available for people who can’t use digital?
Can existing inequalities be prevented in a digital world?
How to apply criterion 3
Criterion 4. Connect services

Criterion 4
When and how to apply this criterion

When to apply
Apply Criterion 4 throughout Beta(Opens in a new tab/window) to ensure smooth integration with other government services and systems.
Adhere to this criterion across the Service Design and Delivery Process(Opens in a new tab/window) whenever new functionality, integrations or upgrades are introduced.
How to apply
Questions for consideration
- how will this service integrate with existing systems and data?
- what standardised protocols will be used to exchange data?
- how will we test for smooth interoperability with other platforms?
- how will the service accommodate future growth and change?
- what information does government already hold that the service could reuse?
- which mechanisms will allow users to opt in or out of data sharing?
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Guidance and resources

Criterion 1 – Embrace diversity

Criterion 2. Know your user

Criterion 3. Leave no one behind

Your responsibilities

When to apply

Questions for consideration

How to apply criterion 3

Criterion 4. Connect services

When to apply

How to apply

Connect with the digital community