Digital accessibility roadmap
Today, State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen presented her roadmap for digital accessibility. The roadmap should help government organisations make their websites and apps more accessible. Meanwhile, many organisations have already taken good steps. We list the highlights.
State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen (Ministry of the Interior)
Dutch websites and apps become more accessible
Fortunately, since the introduction of the Temporary Digital Accessibility Decree, more and more websites and apps are being built accessible. Digital accessibility is a serious issue at more and more organisations.
Earlier, we looked at the accessibility of municipal websites. At the end of March, our own research showed that more than half of municipalities are already well on their way. The main website in their municipality then has an A or B status in the accessibility statement. At provinces, water boards and other government organisations, too, we see increasing awareness on the subject.
People with disabilities experience problems using websites and apps. This hinders them from participating fully and equally in (digital) society.
State secretary Van Huffelen
Digital accessibility enables more people to participate independently in society. It helps people with and without disabilities to arrange more matters with the government easily. Naturally, we are big fans of that!
In the Netherlands, 1332 government organisations are covered by the legal obligation. All these organisations have between 5,000 and 6,000 websites and about 523 apps. The number changes regularly. An increasing number of companies and other organisations are also making work of digital accessibility. As of 7 April 2022, a total of 3405 accessibility statements had been published.
Roadmap for Digital Accessibility
The Digital Accessibility Roadmap should help the government make their websites and apps more accessible faster. After all, some organisations still have some work to do. Some people cannot yet use government websites and app independently.
Some governments do not yet have a policy on digital accessibility. Long-term planning is lacking. Knowledge about digital accessibility is also lacking. In some cases, fixing problems afterwards is also a time-consuming (and expensive) job.
The roadmap consists of four parts:
Increase knowledge on digital accessibility.
Encourage inclusive design.
Increase insight and improve data quality.
Facilitate supervisors.
Read the entire chamber letter "Roadmap for Digital Accessibility". Rather not read the whole thing? We list the highlights for you.
Increasing knowledge about digital accessibility
Government organisations should increase their knowledge about digital accessibility. For example, by taking a training in digital accessibility. This also includes making good procurement agreements for new digital services. Through meetings for ICT suppliers, awareness about digital accessibility is raised.
There will also be a kind of "Do" scheme. These schemes will allow governments to use digital accessibility support free of charge. Examples include the provision of digital accessibility courses for civil servants. Our training course Digital Accessibility for Web Administrators is a good example of this.
Encouraging inclusive design
Websites and apps get better by considering digital accessibility from the very beginning. This starts with accessible and inclusive design. For this, the government is going to create standard building blocks and encourage the use of user testing. By listening to people with disabilities, websites and apps will be improved and designers and builders will learn what works and what does not.
Increasing insight and improving data quality
Regulators need more insight into the progress public organisations are making to improve accessibility. This will also allow improvements to be made earlier. Visitors to websites and users of apps will also be able to hold governments accountable earlier if improvements are not forthcoming.
Facilitating supervisors
Supervisors should be able to do their job better through up-to-date and complete information. To this end, among other things, a dashboard is being developed with up-to-date information on the status of accessibility. Supervisors will also get help through a new 'unit'. They will advise the supervisor.
Starting today with digital accessibility
At the end of 2022, the state secretary will again tell the House of Representatives about progress. It is important that governments, as well as companies, are even more concerned with digital accessibility. Cardan Technobility helps with this. We have all the knowledge in-house to help organisations and suppliers make their website or app more verbose