Inclusive by Design — Jamaica Launches Its First National ICT Accessibility Standards

On 25 February 2026, the Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ) held a launch ceremony at its Multipurpose Facility in Kingston for the country's first suite of eight information and communications technology (ICT) accessibility standards, under the theme 'Inclusive by Design: Crafting a Digital Jamaica that Leaves No One Behind'. The standards cover accessibility for physical, intellectual and mental-health disabilities as well as hearing and visual impairments.
The standards operationalise Jamaica's Disabilities Act, 2014 (in force since 14 February 2022), which the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has previously commended the country for enacting. Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD) Executive Director Dr Christine Hendricks said the standards give the Council 'a nationally recognised enforceable benchmark' for engaging ministries, agencies and private-sector entities — support that was previously informal.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Security, which estimates that about 450,000 Jamaicans (roughly 15% of the population) live with a disability, has named three follow-up priorities for the next 12-24 months: equipping new ICT access points with adaptive technologies, scaling up assistive-technology training for blind, low-vision, deaf and hard-of-hearing users, and building 'accessibility by default' into public digital services from inception. JCPD has begun conducting accessibility audits of government websites.
As of the launch, no compliance figures, adoption rates, or numbers of remediated government websites have been published — the standards are a governance and legal foundation, not yet a measured outcome. The Jamaica Observer's own reporting on the country's 'journey towards compliance' with the Disabilities Act describes implementation to date as gradual and uneven, a useful caution against reading the launch itself as proof of impact.

Read the full analysis: https://jis.gov.jm/bsj-launches-jamaicas-first-ict-accessibility-standards/