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Good practice Imported

Australia's Digital Inclusion Standard — Mandatory Whole-of-Government Inclusive Design

Australia · Canberra · See the Australia profile · See the Canberra profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 55% 72/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Australia's Digital Transformation Agency made inclusive design mandatory across federal digital services from January 2025, requiring five criteria — from embracing diversity to accessibility — rather than leaving inclusion to individual project teams.

5
Mandatory criteria for digital services (from Jan 2025)

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Digital Transformation Agency (Australian Government)
Period
2025–ongoing
Keywords
government, digital policy, public sector, accessibility

Context

Australia's Digital Inclusion Standard, administered by the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), builds on Criterion 3 ('Leave No One Behind') of the existing Digital Service Standard, turning it into a binding, whole-of-government requirement.

Activities

The Standard sets five mandatory criteria for informational and transactional digital services: embrace diversity, motivate digital use, protect users, make it accessible, and provide flexibility and choice, with a formal exemption and reporting process for agencies unable to meet a criterion.

Results

It became mandatory for new services from 1 January 2025 and extends to existing services from July 2025, covering the entire Commonwealth digital estate under the Investment Oversight Framework.

Conclusions

Because the policy only reached full mandatory status in 2025, there is not yet an independent evaluation of its effect on user outcomes; what is verifiable is the binding governance design itself, paired with published implementation guidance.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Not disclosed; primarily a governance/compliance mandate rather than a capital project.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Mandatory for new services from 1 January 2025; extends to existing services from July 2025.
Staffing & skills
Digital Transformation Agency (DTA)

Conditions for success

  • A binding, whole-of-government mandate rather than optional good practice
  • Published implementation guidance (criterion checklists, phased transition)

Common failure modes

  • No independent evaluation of user-outcome effects yet, given the 2025 mandate is recent

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Replication kit

Reusable artefacts from this practice — as published by their sources.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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