Online screening allows a citizen to determine if they are potentially eligible for one or more programs provided by the organization. Screening involves asking the client a series of targeted questions which will be used to determine if they are potentially eligible to receive certain programs. This can result in a significant time saving for the citizen as they will not need to complete lengthy application forms for programs they are unlikely to be eligible to receive. The questions are presented to the citizen via a structured group of web pages, known as a question script, that are accessed from the Universal Access portal. The answers that the citizen provides to these questions are then submitted to a database from where they are fed into a business rules engine to be assessed by pre-defined rules logic. These rules make a determination on the citizen's provided data and return a list of programs for which they may either be eligible or not eligible.
The citizen may then proceed to apply for various programs online, or, they may also download a PDF program application form which they can print off, complete manually and mail to their local office.
Before configuring a screening, an organization needs to consider the programs to be included in the screening, what questions need to be asked, how these questions are structured in the script and the business rules that determine whether or not the citizen is potentially eligible for the screened programs. They should also consider if PDF application forms are going to be provided for each program, whether programs will only be available at certain local offices and if service areas will be set up to be serviced by these offices. In order to make a screening question script available on the Universal Access portal, the organization must configure a screening object from the Universal Access menu in the Administration Application.
This chapter outlines how to configure a screening and associated programs.