Accessibility Lessons from the MyWay+ Rollout
The outcome of the government inquiry into the MyWay+ digital ticketing system
In November 2024, The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government launched its long-awaited MyWay+ digital ticketing system, a $60 million public investment intended to modernise how the community access and pay for public transport across the territory.
But from the outset, the system was plagued with issues. None more concerning than its failure to meet accessibility standards.
A promised commitment to accessibility
Accessibility wasn’t a side note. The public contract made clear that the MyWay+ system must comply with WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards, ensuring equitable access for all users, including those with disabilities.
This was not a recommendation, it was a core contractual requirement.
Yet, our early assessment showed otherwise. Several screens exhibited significant accessibility barriers.
These were not edge cases or theoretical limitations. They were clear, preventable design and coding errors affecting real users.
We presented our findings [PDF] to the Legislative Assembly public inquiry, raising concerns that we believed many in the disability community had already begun experiencing firsthand.
What the inquiry revealed
During the public hearings, representatives from NEC (the contracted vendor) and Territory Transport Minister Chris Steel appeared at the inquiry to respond to questions submitted by the public.
What emerged was a disappointing picture of how accessibility was handled in this large, complex project.
Key findings included:
- NEC was contractually obligated to deliver a fully WCAG 2.1 compliant system.
- Transport Canberra confirmed that NEC gave no advance notice before launch that parts of the system would fail accessibility requirements.
- A chance to engage accessibility experts early was declined internally by the project team, citing cost and perceived adequacy of existing processes.
- The ACT Government allowed MyWay+ to go live without full compliance, relying on NEC’s post-launch assurance processes.
- Only on 29 January 2025, several months after go-live, did NEC formally advise that the Customer Portal was only partially compliant.
In response to the growing concern, NEC has since engaged an external vendor to conduct a full accessibility assessment of the MyWay+ platform.
This work began in March 2025, and NEC is covering the cost of these remedial efforts.
Accessibility as an afterthought
It’s important to acknowledge that accessibility wasn’t ignored entirely. It was referenced in contracts. It was mentioned in planning documents.
But in practice, it was not embedded. It was something to manage and assess later, not a core value shaping decisions from the outset.
This is critical, because accessibility flaws are not abstract design debates. They’re defects.
And according to the US government's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) "The Economic Impacts of Inadequate Infrastructure for Software Testing" report [PDF], fixing software defects after deployment can be up to 30 times more expensive than addressing them during design and development.
And that doesn’t speak to their brittleness with how supportive the fix is for people with disabilities.
Post-launch testing we've since conducted shows NEC is now actively fixing these defects, and that’s commendable. But these fixes are largely tactical.
They aim to meet minimum WCAG conformance, not to deliver best-in-class or innovative user experiences for disabled people.
A rare opportunity to radically improve digital inclusion in a public-facing, next-generation transport system has been missed.
6 Lessons for government and industry
There are however clear takeaways for any large-scale digital transformation project:
- Treat accessibility like security or data integrity. It's foundational, not optional.
- Implement third-party audits early and often.
- Embed accessibility expertise from design to deployment.
- Assign clear, accountable roles across vendors, government, and delivery partners.
- Accessibility should be a go/no-go criterion not a deferred checkbox.
- Accessibility is not just technical; it’s a human rights and public trust issue.
A final note
For the ACT Government and NEC, the words of Frank Sinatra’s hit song "My Way" feel particularly apt:
Yes, there were times, I guess you knew, when I bit off much more than I could chew…
MyWay+ had the incredible potential to set a new standard for inclusive digital infrastructure. Instead, it became a lesson in what happens when accessibility is treated as an afterthought.
Let this not be the end of the conversation, but the beginning of doing better.