Human Rights Tracker Scotland: Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA)

Recommendations and Conclusion

While the Tracker is expected to have an overall neutral impact on people who share protected characteristics, the EQIA process has identified an important risk in relation to digital exclusion for some user groups.

To mitigate this, the Tracker has been developed collaboratively with stakeholders through a Design Group with a strong emphasis on usability. It will conform with Scottish Government accessibility guidelines and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2. This has been checked through an independent accessibility audit that involves testing with individuals who share protected characteristics (including those who use assistive technology and screen readers).

Further to this, the platform will be accessible on both computer and mobile devices to support ease of use across different technologies and user preferences. Recommendations will be tagged from Phase 1 to allow users to more easily navigate between content that has a shared theme, issue or affected person. Phase 2 will aim to develop an implementation methodology that supports clear and coherent reporting on action taken against relevant recommendations and the outcome. This will give consideration to publishing simplified, Easy Read and Child Friendly versions of the recommendations to further support user understanding. It will also include the development of an Evaluation Plan that can support ongoing monitoring and improvement, including on the user experience.

The Scottish Government is addressing digital exclusion more broadly through initiatives such as the Connecting Scotland programme to support to those most at risk, and through work to establish a Digital Inclusion Alliance, bringing together partners across sectors to tackle systemic barriers to digital participation.

This EQIA will be reviewed and updated as required to reflect emerging developments over the lifetime of the Tracker.

Agreed: 12 February 2026