Papua New Guinea's Digital-Accessibility Gap — A 2025 WCAG Pledge Against a 9.5/100 DARE Index Score

G3ict's Digital Accessibility Rights Evaluation (DARE) Index, which benchmarks countries on disability-related ICT commitments, capacity and outcomes under CRPD Article 9, scored Papua New Guinea 9.5 out of 100 — 131st of the countries assessed and last among its East Asia & Pacific peers. The breakdown found PNG had no policy at all (0 of 5 points) in nine of ten measured areas, including web accessibility, mobile telephony, e-books, inclusive ICT in education and employment, e-government, and accessible procurement; only television/multimedia access showed partial (level 2) implementation.
PNG ratified the CRPD in 2013 but has not signed the Marrakesh Treaty, has no standalone disability-rights law with ICT-accessibility provisions, no dedicated accessible-ICT agency, and no formal mechanism for disability organisations to shape accessibility policy, per the same assessment.
Since then, PNG's National Information Center published an accessibility statement, effective 18 June 2025, committing government websites to WCAG 2.1 Level AA, screen-reader and screen-magnifier compatibility, keyboard navigation, alt text, captions and adjustable contrast, with an open channel for reporting barriers. This is a real, dated policy commitment, but it is a single agency's website statement rather than the cross-government legal mandate the DARE Index found missing, and no independent post-2025 audit of actual conformance has been published — the practice is included here as an honest, partially-verified case of an accessibility pledge issued against a documented baseline of near-total absence.

Read the full analysis: https://info.gov.pg/accessibility/