A parliament is inclusive when all community members can access it and participate in its activities, programmes and services regardless of their age, gender, location or physical ability. This inclusion checklist is designed to assist parliaments in being accessible to their diverse communities.
Leave no one behind
Check that the activities, programmes and services of parliament cater adequately to all sectors of society, particularly those who have been disengaged previously:
- Are parliamentary engagement activities and programmes conducted with gender balance?
- Do people from rural and remote areas have sufficient opportunities to engage with parliament?
- Are people from low socioeconomic backgrounds able to adequately access parliament?
- Are there barriers to participation for people with disabilities?
- Are minority groups from culturally diverse backgrounds encouraged or supported to engage with parliament?
- Do young people have the opportunity to contribute their perspectives in a meaningful way?
- Is information available to people who do not have online access?
Consultations
Ensure, including through monitoring, that public consultations, including committee hearings, are conducted in an accessible and inclusive way:
- Are public consultations by parliament, such as committee inquiries, and their outcomes promoted in a timely manner and to a wide and diverse audience through channels and media that diverse groups use?
- Is information about public consultations made available in key languages spoken within the community other than the main language(s) of the country?
- Is information about public consultations made available in formats that are accessible to people with disabilities, including in Braille and sign language?
- Is pre-hearing information available to assist people of diverse backgrounds participate in committee hearings?
- Do committees regularly conduct hearings out in the community (in both urban and rural settings)?
- Are public consultations streamed online to make them more accessible, and are recordings of these also made available in a timely way?
Parliament building
Ensure that the parliament building is accessible to all community members:
- Are there any physical barriers for people to enter the building and move around inside?
- Is signage accessible, particularly for people who are hearing or visually impaired?
- Are there adequate facilities that cater for people with disabilities, such as accessible bathroom facilities?
- Are interpreter services available for visitors to the building who do not speak the main language(s) of the country?
- Is information readily available that can help people with disabilities prepare for a visit to parliament?
- Do displays and exhibits within parliament reflect the diversity of the community, including by being gender-balanced?
- Do catering facilities at parliament provide for the dietary requirements of culturally diverse groups?
Outreach initiatives at community locations
Make sure that outreach initiatives conducted by parliament in urban and rural areas away from parliament are accessible and inclusive:
- Are outreach programmes conducted regularly at community spaces in urban areas and in rural and remote communities?
- Is there gender balance in the range of outreach activities conducted by parliament and are there specific programmes conducted for women?
- Is provision made for people with disabilities in outreach activities?
- Is information about outreach activities communicated in a way and through channels that help to?ensure it reaches beyond parliament’s existing networks to a greater diversity of community members?
- Are there groups within the community with which parliament can collaborate to ensure that a wide cross-section of the community is informed about and can participate in outreach activities?
- Are outreach activities conducted in safe spaces and in respectful and culturally sensitive ways?
- Are outreach activities conducted on days and at times that enable a wide-cross section of the community to participate?
- Are targeted outreach programmes conducted for groups of people who are disengaged from or who have never connected with parliament, particularly people from minority groups and youth?
Tours and events
Make sure that access to parliament and opportunities to learn about its history and how it works are designed in an inclusive way and are accessible to all:
- Do tours and events at parliament cater for diverse communities, including people who are visually or hearing impaired or have mobility issues?
- Is technology available that can make tours and events more accessible?
- Are support mechanisms, such as subsidies, available to help people participate in tours and events at parliament where they would otherwise find it difficult to do so?
- Are tours and events promoted through a wide range of channels used by different sections of the community?
- Does parliament have staff with educational experience who can work with schools and students to maximize their learning opportunities?
?Digital communications
Check that digital communications from parliament and digital platforms are accessible and inclusive:
- Does parliament’s website meet accessibility standards, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 established by the World Wide Web Consortium and relevant national standards? In particular: Is all graphical content alt-tagged? Do all the pages work with a screen reader? Are videos closed-captioned to make them more accessible? Are sign-language interpreters used in online events and video material produced by parliament?
- Do parliament’s social media channels and posts meet good practice accessibility standards such as those recommended in the IPU’s Social media guide for parliaments and parliamentarians?
- Are the diverse groups within society reflected in the digital material produced by parliament, including through provision of content?in all recognized or official languages?
- Are the interests of both urban and rural communities catered for in digital material produced by parliament?
- Does information on parliament’s website and social media pages use gender-sensitive language?
- Do parliament’s website and social media pages reflect gender and age balance in the images and stories they present?
- Are information and services provided through digital means also available to people who do not have online access?
- Does parliament review the digital and social tools used by the public to help determine its own digital outreach and engagement strategy?
Print publications
Check that print publications produced by parliament meet accessibility standards:
- Are print publications from parliament written in plain language or are there plain-language versions of publications?
- Are publications produced in Braille to enable people who are visually impaired to access them?
- Do print publications from parliament meet good-practice accessibility standards for content, structure and appearance (such as standards developed by government or CSOs in the relevant country)?
- Are versions of documents produced in languages used by culturally and linguistically diverse groups within the community?
- Are documents tabled in parliament made available to people in an accessible and timely way?
Budget
Check that the funding devoted to community engagement promotes accessibility and inclusion:
- Is sufficient budget allocated to outreach programmes compared to engagement activities conducted at parliament?
- Is any budget allocated to promoting parliament’s consultations, outreach and engagement activities in media and communication channels used by diverse communities?
- Is there any budget allocated for translating information into Braille, sign language or ethnic languages used in the community?
- Are gender budgeting principles employed in determining the engagement budget and how it is used?
Listen to the Public Engagement Hub seminar with Andres Lomp of the Victorian Parliament discussing key aspects of inclusion and diversity in parliamentary public engagement.
