Galway City Council is in the process of adopting a Digital Strategy for the City. This strategy has been created in consultation with a variety of stakeholders in the city including the Insight Centre in NUlG.

One of the horizontal principles that is fundamental to the delivery of actions under this strategy is: Accessibility-Actions that will ensure maximum access to Digital Society by all Citizens will be a priority. An action is identified with the strategy to support the achievement of this horizontal principal namely. Incorporate Digital Accessibility and Inclusion in the design of digital services and infrastructure.

The challenge that needs to be addressed is to develop a methodology whereby the partners within the Digital Strategy can assess their digitization activities to identify the potential for digital exclusion that might occur and identify corresponding measures that they can implement in tandem with the activity to reduce the risk of digital exclusion.

It is essential that representatives of the groups and individuals in society most at risk of digital exclusion along with the organisations providing supports to them are involved the development of this
methodology to ensure that it is effective and can be integrated into the design and development stages of digital services.