UK releases accessibility guidelines for One Login, lays out plans for future

The UK government has released guidelines on how to make the GOV.UK ID Check app is more accessible. The document gives instructions on how to implement Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 both for Android and iOS apps.

The GOV.UK ID Check allows users to confirm their identity while signing into government services with the country’s single-sign-on system One Login. It works by matching the users’ faces to their photo IDs. The app was released last year by the Government Digital Service (GDS) office.

“We believe we’ve made a great start by making our app accessible to AA standards, but there is still plenty to do,” the agency says in a blog post. “We want to expand our implementation guidance to cover a wider range of components, providing example implementations of each in the code libraries we have for iOS and Android.”

Government Digital Service has also announced that it is preparing a beta phase of its project of integrating One Login with the country’s tax authority HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

The integration will be the main focus of the One Login project over the next six months. By the end of the fiscal year 2024-2025, the plan is to integrate 145 services with another 160 identified, Tom Read, CEO of GDS told trade publication UK Authority.

Once a user signs up for One Login, the system will require consent to use their personal data across different government services, integrating it into different databases across the government. The move was designed to save time for users who would otherwise have to provide their data every time they sign up for a new service.

Other initiatives from the GDS include proving identity without a photo ID which remains a problem in the UK. A possible solution may be knowledge-based verification questions and having another person vouch for someone’s identity, says Read.

AI could automate many government services: Research

The UK government provides around 400 services to its citizens and a large portion of them could be soon automated by artificial intelligence, according to new research from The Alan Turing Institute.

AI could help automate around 84 percent of 143 million complex but repetitive transactions across 200 government services, saving time and effort. The most significant time-savers could be time-intensive transactions, such as those that involve a decision and an exchange of information between the government and a citizen, such as registering to vote or applying for a national insurance number, the study shows.

“Even if AI could save one minute per transaction, that would be the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of hours of labor saved each year,” says Jonathan Bright, head of the institute’s AI for Public Services and Online Safety.

Article Topics

accessibility  |  automation  |  government services  |  One Login  |  single sign-on  |  Turing Institute  |  UK