Statul online a personal vision
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Chapter 4 of 8 · What everyone would gain~3 minutes

A common system would make the state’s services easier to use for anyone

If the system described in the previous chapter existed, Ana’s evening would look different: the same buttons and the same clear messages on all four websites, and her mother’s screen reader would say what each button does. But the gains would not stop with them.

Choose what fits you. You can be several things at once.

I am… someone who needs to sort something out with the state

  • You would learn only once. Buttons, menus and forms would work the same way on any state website.
  • You would know from the start what you need. Every service would have a “Before you start” page: which documents, how much it costs, how long it takes, who is responsible.
  • You would get error messages that help you. “The CNP has 13 digits. You entered 12.”, not “Error”. (The CNP is the Romanian personal numeric code.)
  • You would know what comes next after you send an application, and you could find out what stage it has reached.
  • You would recognise an official website by the trust banner at the top of the page, which shows you how to check that it is genuine.

I am… an older person, or someone who doesn’t often use the internet

  • Text that can be enlarged without breaking the page.
  • Large buttons that are easy to tap on a phone.
  • Plain language, without office jargon.
  • Pages that work on cheap phones and on a weak internet connection too.

I am… a person with disabilities

  • Building blocks tested with programs that read the screen, with a Romanian voice, before they are declared ready to use.
  • Everything can also be used with the keyboard alone.
  • Testing sessions with people with disabilities, paid for their time, organised together with their organisations. Not just automated tests.
  • The right to report a problem and to get an answer within a clear deadline.

I am… someone who speaks another language better

  • Hungarian and English from the first stage, for the basic messages and steps.
  • Ukrainian for people under temporary protection, German, Romani, Serbian, Turkish and others, in stages, according to need and legal obligations.
  • Romanian Sign Language for the essential information in the priority services.
  • Easy-to-read text for people with reading difficulties.
  • The language you choose stays the same throughout the service.
  • Romanian remains the legal reference version.

I am… a Romanian living abroad

  • Forms that accept addresses abroad, not just “county, locality, street”.
  • Names with diacritics, with several first names or from other alphabets, accepted correctly.

I am… someone who works in a public institution

  • You start from building blocks that are already tested: the pattern for the CNP, the one for the address, the “Before you start” page, the “Accessibility” page filled in following the model in Decision no. 815/2022 of the Romanian Authority for Digitalisation (ADR), the government agency for digitalisation.
  • You automatically follow the legal rules: the five mandatory sections of the website, the “Accessibility” page, the date of last update, the logos for European funds.
  • You have someone to turn to: documentation, examples, a support team.
  • The institution keeps its identity: its name, the colours of its administrative level.

I am… someone who works in an IT company or a technical team

  • Ready-tested building blocks, with open source code, free of charge and with no lock-in to a particular supplier.
  • The standard would be public and free, the same for every company, and companies that contribute to it would get no advantage in public tenders.
  • Less time wasted on the same problems, solved again in every project: contrast, visible focus, field labels. These are exactly the problems ADR found most often in its 2025 monitoring.

I am… a student or I work at a university

  • Real projects, used by millions of people, for coursework, bachelor’s dissertations or research.
  • Paid internships in the permanent team and mentoring from industry specialists.

I am… a taxpayer (that is, everyone above)

  • The common building blocks would be paid for only once and would be free for all institutions. Today, through the DigiLocal funding programme for local authorities, about 900 projects have been accepted, and each local authority buys its own solution.
  • The results would be measured and published: whether people find it easier to complete an application, whether they need less help, how much each transaction costs.

What a design system cannot promise

I want to be honest about the limits too:

Try how it would look →

For specialists
  • The intended outcome for citizens is set out in the SDGR proposal (the Government of Romania Design System) as five observable outcomes: they find the service, complete the application without help, use the service with assistive technologies and on mobile, get information in their own language, and understand what data is collected.
  • Multilingualism on three levels: level 1 (the basic interface: RO, HU, EN, in the MVP), level 2 (the key information of the priority services), level 3 (the full service, only where there is an obligation and the capacity to maintain it).
  • Legal bases: the Administrative Code (art. 94, 195, 198: the 20% threshold), Government Decision (HG) no. 123/2002 art. 12, Law no. 27/2020 (Romanian Sign Language), Law no. 242/2022 art. 5 (multilingualism, inclusion, “once only”).
  • The stability gate: automated tests, manual tests (keyboard, zoom 200–400%, contrast, reduced motion), screen readers (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, TalkBack) with a Romanian voice, paid sessions with people with disabilities.
  • Response to accessibility complaints: the SDGR proposal aims for at most 10 working days. Government Emergency Ordinance (OUG) no. 112/2018 (on the accessibility of public sector websites) currently requires 30 days.
  • Safeguards for companies: no voting rights over the standard, no advantage in procurement, public contributions under EUPL-1.2.

What I base this on

The links lead to the public versions of my research documents; the section number (§) takes you straight to the paragraph cited.

Claim Document Where
The outcomes for citizens The full proposal §1.3
The patterns (“Before you start”, CNP, address, application status) The full proposal §6.5
Official banner The full proposal; The American system (USWDS) §6.3; §5.4
Languages, translation levels The full proposal §7
The legal bases for languages What already exists in Romania §9, §11
Accessibility testing, response deadline The full proposal §8
OUG 112/2018: response within 30 days What already exists in Romania §6
The legal rules built in (HG 123/2002, ADR Decision 815/2022, HG 1085/2003, OMIPE 5744/2023) What already exists in Romania §4, §5, §15
Universities, the private sector, safeguards The full proposal §9.3, §9.4
The limits The full proposal §1.2, §8
The indicators measured The full proposal §15