On sept 19, 2023 I gave an insight into the state of digital accessibility in The Netherlands. Here’s a summary of this presentation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2008 there has been a non-binding agreement between public organisations to be digitally accessible. As a foundation for this, there were the so-called “Web Guidelines”. These are basically WCAG 2.0 A and AA plus some extra requirements, such as friendly URLs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These Web Guidelines have been superseded by a temporary conversion into national law of the Web Accessibility Directive. This temporary order will become part of a bigger Law on Digital Government. In the current order, there are no sanctions for not complying. This might change when the Law on Digital Government comes into force. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The European Accessibility Act has not yet been converted into national law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is one monitoring body, Logius, which monitors the accessibility statements and helps public organisations with improving their digital accessibility. Their website is digitoegankelijk.nl<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n All public organisations need to publish an accessibility statement in a fixed form with an online tool. All these statements are available at toegankelijkheidsverklaring.nl\/register<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to state that a website or app fully or partially complies to the Web Accessibility Directive, there must be a WCAG accessibility audit report as a foundation. This report is valid for 3 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An accessibility statement can have one of the following statuses: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Right now the register of accessibility statements is being transferred into a dashboard: dashboard.digitoegankelijk.nl<\/a>. This shows even more information about the state of accessibility at the Dutch government as a whole and per organisation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n WCAG audits need to be done according to the evaluation method WCAG-EM. As a public organisation you can do it yourself, but this usually is outsourced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is possible to divide an audit into a technical audit and a content audit. In the technical audit, the auditor reviews 43 success criteria from a technical perspective. In a content audit, the auditor reviews 30 success criteria from a content perspective. There are some overlaps and these numbers are for WCAG 2.1 A+AA reports and will change for WCAG 2.2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a national programme for help and support for public organisations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most – if not all – public organisations have accessibility as requirement in procurement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are a web agency, designer or software builder and if you have proven that you can make digitally accessible products or services, you can apply to be listed on ddai.nl\/aanbieders<\/a> (Dutch Digital Accessibility Index). This is a commercial initiative for organisations that are looking for accessible suppliers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can download the PowerPoint sheets from our Slack channel<\/a> (I cannot upload it here). Please let me know if you run into any problems with this. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On sept 19, 2023 I gave an insight into the state of digital accessibility in The Netherlands. Here’s a summary of this presentation. Law and order Since 2008 there has been a non-binding agreement between public organisations to be digitally … Continue reading \n
WCAG audits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Miscellaneous<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sheets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n