The Act on Access to Digital Public Service – what applies?
Digital accessibility means that all people – regardless of disability – should be able to use digital services or websites.
The need for accessibility has always existed, but the requirements were raised when the Digital Public Service Act came into force.
You need to know this
All websites and digital services in the public sector must meet legal requirements for accessibility. This means that we at Mid Sweden University are obliged to proactively, without request, provide available digital information.
The Act on Accessibility to Digital Public Service (DOS) requires digital content to be
- possible to perceive, regardless of any impairment of, for example, vision or hearing
- manageable, i.e. possible to interact with
- understandable and
- robust, that is to say, be able to be used with a wide range of different user programs, such as browsers or technical aids.
In practice, this means that we must meet more than 50 accessibility criteria in a standard called EN301549, which in general corresponds to the web guidelines: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA (WCAG).
In addition, the law contains a provision that means that there should be a so-called accessibility report for our website as well as for other web-based systems and applications. An accessibility report shall describe how we meet the requirements for accessibility and inform about contact paths where users can get in touch if they have problems or need help. We should also be prepared to help those who make contact.
Accessibility report for miun.se (in Swedish)
Several reasons to invest in accessibility
In addition to the requirements of the DOS law, there are several other arguments to invest in digital accessibility.
Accessibility
- meets the requirements of the Discrimination Act to counteract discrimination.
- it is necessary for certain people to be able to educate themselves, for example.
- often contributes to increased usability and a better experience for everyone.
- means that our digital initiatives have a greater effect and that we reach more.
Supervisory authority
The supervisory authority is the Swedish Agency for Digital Management (DIGG). DIGG will exercise both automated and manual controls of websites. It is also possible to report deficiencies in compliance with DIGG. In cases where DIGG detects defects, they will first contact the relevant authority for correction, if this is not done, a penalty can be imposed.
More information about the legal requirements
The consequences of the law on different roles/work tasks
All employees
The responsibility to ensure that Mid Sweden University meets the legal requirements of the Accessibility Directive lays on each employee. This means that you as an individual employee must ensure that your own material is accessible.
Teacher
The person who is the owner of a resource in the form of a document or media (audio, image and video) that is uploaded into a web platform such as the learning platform is responsible for making the resource available.
System group owners
According to Mid Sweden University’s guidelines for system management (länk?), each system group owner is overall responsible for ensuring that the systems within the group comply with laws, guidelines and internal governance documents. This also includes accessibility. For support, there is a checklist with items relating to accessibility issues (in Swedish).
Measures to meet accessibility must be managed in each system plan/management plan (in Swedish).
Web Editor
In order to meet the requirements of the law, that everyone should be able to access the content of miun.se, it is important that you follow Mid Sweden University’s instructions for publishing available. Among other things, it is important that you consider how you make meaningful elements available on a website. This applies above all to the following parts:
- Headlines
- Links
- Audio, image and video
The accessibility requirements apply as well as to external and internal pages as well as for both Swedish and English pages.
Additional instructions and checklist are available on the Web Accessibility page – to consider when publishing (in Swedish).
Procurement
When Mid Sweden University procures system support, accessibility needs to be taken into account. Access requirements are included in Mid Sweden University’s requirements for procurement of IT. You can find the requirements catalogue among the documents at the bottom of the information security page (in Swedish).