The image at the top of this article is of Dr Robbie Sinnott at his PhD graduation.
On February 27th, on the last Tuesday of the month, the Dublin City Public Participation Network (PPN), hosted the first of what will, hopefully, be useful, monthly, online support sessions for its PPN Representatives.
PPN Representatives had said they sometimes feel a little isolated in their work and challenged by the responsibilities of being on Dublin City Council committees, and so these monthly sessions are a way for the PPN to support its Representatives.
We were really happy that Dr Robbie Sinnott volunteered to share some of his work on accessible electronic documents for blind and partially sighted people. The idea of these new one-hour zooms is that the PPN Representatives will give short presentations about something they feel strongly about, and that this will lead to questions and answers about the PPN committee work, in general.
In any case, it’s a new idea, and new ideas always take time to form.
Robbie is from the member group Voice of Vision Impairment (VVI), which is Ireland’s national human rights and collective representative organisation for blind and partially sighted people. He sits on the Mobility and Urban Realm Strategic Policy Committee (SPC), as a PPN Representative from the Social Inclusion Pillar.
Robbie began the presentation by explaining the different needs of blind and partially sighted people. Some blind people might request documents in braille because it is easier for them to read the documents, instead of listenening to a digital screen reader read the documents aloud. Sighted people may enjoy audio books and listening to stories and fairy tales, but non-fiction can be very difficult to listen to for anyone, and so if someone requests braille documents, the group or organisation should reasonably accommodate the request.
In terms of electronic documents for blind and partially sighted people, Robbie spoke in general about what the screen reader can and cannot do. A screen reader will read words aloud, from left to right, but cannot read an image, a photograph, a map, a graph or a cartoon, and it doesn’t recognise colour, including colour-coded text. It cannot easily replicate tables, which are designed with sight in mind, so tables containing only text should be avoided.
Then Robbie went into more detail: PDF. files are never going to be adequately accessible to screen reader-users, and so if a report or paper is being published in .pdf, it needs to be accompanied by a screen reader-accessible version in any of the following – .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .txt. Word-processing software such as Microsoft Word are not screen reader-accessible by default, given the amount of automated formatting settings. For example, Microsoft’s Automatic lists (numbering and bulleting), cause difficulty in navigation by keyboard, which screen reader-users rely on. As such, this feature needs to be disabled and numbering and bulleting etc., should be typed in manually using the keyboard.
Similarly, the automatic page-numbering in Word is either impossible or almost impossible to access by screen reader-users, and so, the page-numbers should be written in [square brackets] at the top of every page (i.e. as they appear in the official or .pdf document, which generally will not align with the Microsoft Word page-numbering in footers).
Roman numerals should be avoided, since screen readers will read them as if they are words rather than numbers.
Images in screenreader-accessible documents should be removed and replaced by a meaningful description of that image.
For example, in the case of images for affect: image one is a photograph of a busy street in Dublin City, or image one is a map of O’Connell Street in Dublin, or image one is a humorous cartoon of a busy street in Dublin City during rush hour. In the case of illustration, the substantive information in an image should be conveyed in the description.
Most screenreader-users do not or cannot use a mouse.
The inevitable question arose during the workshop: how do small volunteer led organisations try to make sure their documents are screen reader accessible? Imagine a small residents association with a volunteer committee writing up minutes from a meeting, trying desperately to follow these guidelines? How can the PPN help that group ensure that their documents are accessible to their blind and partially sighted members?
Robbie assured the group that this is much easier done than it sounds.
All it really needs is a little practice and a small amount of effort. This is not a very big price for inclusion and equity.
The PPN might have a role to play here.
As an accessibility (macro) as distinct from a reasonable accommodation (individual-level) measure, the PPN should always ensure that PPN documents can be read by the PPN members who use screen readers and make sure anything it publishes online, is accessible to screen reader-users everywhere.
To easily facilitate requests for braille or large print documents by individuals, the PPN should develop its reasonable accommodation policy while developing its new 5 year plan during 2026.
The PPN could explore technical and operational solutions to this issue by way of Artificial Intelligence or an app that might assist.
And the PPN will work with Brian Greene, from Dublin City Television to produce a short podcast about electronic accessible documents. Brian is a PPN Representative from DCTV and sits on the Community, Gaeilge, Sport, Arts and Culture committee as a representative from the Community and Voluntary Pillar. He has offered to help the PPN produce a short podcast, about this issue, and we very much look forward to working with him. Brian will interview Robbie further and this podcast will be shared with the PPN members.
The purpose of the PPN is to try and increase the quality of life for the people who live, work, study and visit Dublin City. We do this by assisting groups to participate more in local authority decision making, and by supporting one another and being allies to the work. The PPN has much to learn and much to offer and we look forward to this exciting work in 2026.
As a free and comprehensive resource, for both accessibility and reasonable accommodation for accessible documents for blind and partially sighted people, go to:
VVIMAC – Manual of Accessible Communications
Related Networks
Social Inclusion Pillar Working Group Mobility and Public Realm SPC