Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission

A circular arrangement of diverse cartoon faces viewed from above, as if the people are standing in a circle looking down at the viewer. The group includes men and women of various ages, ethnicities, and styles: a redhead with curly hair, a person with dark skin, an older individual with white hair and glasses, a blonde woman, a bearded man, and others. They have various expressions ranging from smiles to neutral looks. The illustration uses a colourful palette with pink, blue, orange, and navy clothing visible.

At a glance

Company	The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission
Industry	Public Sector
Use Cases	Product Training, Diversity and Inclusion

Technologies

Hosted online digital learning solution
Custom learning portal with accessible design
Aurion High5 design framework

Key Features

W3CAA accessible and developed with Universal Design principles
3 x 30 minute interactive and scenario-based eLearning modules
Comprehensive assessments and personal action plans

Summary

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission aimed to deliver training on Human Rights, Equality, and the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty to public sector staff in Ireland. This initiative aims to enhance the understanding of staff within public bodies regarding concepts and principles related to equality and human rights, international and national legislation, and approaches to implementing the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty.

About IHREC

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission is Ireland’s national human rights and equality institution.

Their purpose is to protect and promote human rights and equality in Ireland and build a culture of respect for human rights, equality and intercultural understanding in the State.

The Challenge

Ensuring equality and upholding human rights are fundamental aspects of the responsibilities carried out by public servants. Since 2014, public bodies have been legally required to eliminate discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and protect the human rights of both service users and staff in their day-to-day operations.

IHREC needed to find a solution that would enable them to provide training to the wider public sector, that would see all roles better equipped to work towards the goal of a shared understanding of equality and human rights in the public service and to be able to explore practical ways they can advance implementation of this Duty.

The Objective

To build the capacity within staff of public bodies to better understand equality and human rights concepts and principles, international and national legislation and approaches to implementing the Public Sector Duty.

The Solution

IHREC commissioned Aurion Learning to develop a hosted custom digital learning solution that would be made available to all public sector staff in Ireland.

The Approach

Following a formal tender process, IHREC selected Aurion Learning to design and develop the hosted digital learning programme. Given our extensive experience creating large-scale custom eLearning solutions for many Irish public sector organisations, we were able to apply our Aurion High5 content development methodology.

Collaborating with key stakeholders and subject matter experts to refine learning outcomes helped focus the approach. This involved a deep analysis of the challenges in addressing equality and human rights across various public sector roles, enabling a scenario based approach in the eLearning program. This allows staff to apply their knowledge in real-world situations.

Additionally, learners are encouraged to complete personal action plans after each unit, and comprehensive assessments ensure the information is retained and understood.

We designed and developed 3 x 30-minute custom eLearning modules, and created a custom learning portal that made the content accessible to a large audience, maintaining an accessible design approach to all elements.

Accessibility was a key aspect of this project - the training is W3CAA accessible and developed with Universal Design principles including AV content, audio description, and an Irish Sign Language (ISL) onscreen overlay.

We utilised our ‘High5’ design framework that allows us to create web grade accessible eLearning content that is highly engaging, interactive, fully scalable across all devices, and packed with a mix of content that supports engagement and knowledge retention and enhances the learning outcomes for the target audience.

Illustrative infographics, examples and case studies were used to show complicated issues in context and how they apply to real life. The result was a highly accessible and highly interactive self-paced eLearning programme on human rights, public sector equality and human rights duty training.

5000+

public servants have accessed and completed the resource.

90+

minutes of eLearning content developed and rolled out.

W3CAA+

W3CAA accessible, developed with Universal Design principles.

The Results

The eLearning initiative was launched by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman. The digital learning programme was rolled out to the public sector on a custom portal and distributed across the civil service in association with One Learning, the civil service learning and development centre.

Since its launch, over 5,000 public servants have accessed and completed the resource.

Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, Sinéad Gibney said;

“Access to training on equality and human rights across our public service is vital for creating the conditions for a fairer, more equal and inclusive society.

“It has an important role to play in enabling public bodies to respond positively to growing diversity in Irish society. It’s crucial that all groups in society feel understood and respected in their interactions with the State.”