Page 601 - Week 02 - Thursday, 24 March 2022
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In October 2021, housing ACT engaged an organisation called True North Content to undertake discovery and really look at the architecture and look at the content that is guiding Housing ACT’s communication and engagement moving forward. So there is a range of work that has happened in relation to that, looking at working with staff and clients, including the tenants consultative group, to really understand what people’s needs are.
One of the key issues that has come out of that is ensuring that information provided on that is accessible and understandable. In Australia, 14 per cent of Australian adults have low literacy and an audit of the current content on the website found that it had a pretty high reading level and that only 20 per cent of pages met the Australian government’s digital transformation agency’s benchmark of grade 7. It also identified there was 105 webpages that contained jargon or unfamiliar words that would need further explanation.
So we are really looking at how we can improve this, and plain English will be used because it also enables better automated software such as Google translate, which will really support Housing ACT’s culturally and linguistically diverse cohort. This Google translate functionality will be embedded in each page of the revised site and there will be a shift from PDF and Word documents to HTML pages to ensure this functionality, and the assisted technologies, can be utilised across all site content. (Time expired.)
MS CLAY: As minister for homelessness services, how are you working with the sector to ensure that we have clear data including on those from CALD backgrounds, to ensure we understand who uses these services and that the services are therefore appropriate?
MS VASSAROTTI: Thank you, Ms Clay, for the question. There is a wide range of work that is happening with the sector to really understand the needs and how we support those. Particularly in relation to data content, this does also factor into work that happens nationally, because there are national datasets that are used in order to ensure that we are able to track how we are performing against other jurisdictions, and that we have consistent data measuring and data terms that are being used. So community agencies are involved in that work, and we continue to work closely with community organisations around that.
Events—Canberra Day
MR PETTERSSON: Minister, how did this year’s Canberra Day celebrations differ from previous years?
MS CHEYNE: I thank Mr Pettersson for the question. After adapting to the changing COVID-19 situation and its impacts on social gatherings over the last two years, 10 days ago, on 14 March, the ACT government was able to run a fully-fledged Canberra Day in a more traditional event format. Whilst circumstances in the previous two years demanded that Canberra Day celebrations consisted of tailored Enlightened programming, supporting by outreach activities, celebrations this year featured a
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