Australian Government — Department of Human Services · 2015
National Indigenous myGov Pilot Program
An early digital-government communication pilot exploring written and audio First Nations language communication to support access to myGov information.
Developed in 2015, the pilot arose from research undertaken in connection with the Copyright Agency Publisher Fellowship, which examined digital approaches to overcoming communication barriers for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
- Project year
- 2015
- Client context
- Australian Government — Department of Human Services
- Documented scope
- 15 language translations
- Formats
- Written and audio communication
The Challenge
Access to digital government information
The pilot explored ways digital government information could be made more accessible for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly where language and digital-access barriers existed.
Research & Development — 2015
From research to a working pilot
The project developed from research into digital approaches to government communication and the use of written, audio and audiovisual communication to convey government information in First Nations languages.
That research shaped a practical pilot concept: government information about creating and using a myGov account, communicated in language rather than in English-only written form.
Pilot Delivery
Documented scope
The documented scope comprised 15 written and audio Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language translations associated with myGov communication.
Digital Communication Approach
Audio, written and digital together
The pilot explored the combined use of audio, written communication and digital media so that information could be received in the form most useful to each community.
Culturally appropriate communication approaches were central to that exploration — supporting access to government digital services in ways that respected language, community context and how information is actually shared.
Government Correspondence — 2016
Subsequent departmental correspondence
2015
Project research, concept development and pilot delivery.
22 February 2016
Subsequent correspondence received from the Department of Human Services.
On 22 February 2016, the Department of Human Services wrote to Indigenous Translations in response to earlier correspondence about the pilot program. The letter described the proposal as “an innovative way of achieving this outcome” and stated that the department would be interested in exploring whether these opportunities could be progressed as part of the myGov refresh programme it had recently announced.
This correspondence followed the 2015 pilot; it did not create the project. It records the department’s interest in exploring opportunities and should not be read as formal endorsement of every aspect of the proposal, nor as evidence that later proposed phases were commissioned or completed.
Project Evidence Gallery
Documentary evidence
Personal email addresses and direct telephone numbers have been redacted. Government branding, date, sender title and substantive correspondence are preserved.
