Accessibility

The requirements for an accessible web services are defined by the WCAG 2.1 AA standard and the European Union Web Accessibility Directive – but accessibility is not only about following a directive.

Responsibility is included in everything we do. By improving digital accessibility we aim to make the digital world equally usable for everyone, and regardless of ability or situation.

What is required from us?

EU directive on web accessibility mandates that public sector websites comply with WCAG 2.1 standard at AA Level (AA-level includes A-level). The service also needs an Accessibility Statement and a possibility to give Accessibility feedback.

We expect that all our partners who create materials for VTT are familiar with the accessibility guidelines and follow them.

Accessibility broadens our customer base

We want to be forerunners, strengthen our brand and services by making accessibility a core value for us, and provide everyone with an excellent customer experience. The need for accessibility is not a niche thing. Limitations in sight, hearing, dexterity or cognitive abilities can happen temporarily and/or be of a varying degree of severity. These can be a result of an accident or merely of normal aging.

Accessibility needs "hide" in each of our customer segments already. Consider, for example, that color blindness or deficiency in color vision affects 8% or 1 in 12 men. By taking accessibility to consideration, we are making our services usable for a larger customer base.

Accessibility is the first step to usability. It improves the user experience for all by making things easy to understand and use. Accessibility can be a competitive advantage, bringing value to all users.

How to take accessibility into consideration when creating digital content?

Accessibility is a sum of all the digital components we create. When you create digital content, build a consistent hierarchy that is easy to glance through. Clear structure makes content easier to use for everyone and helps people to navigate by using links and headers, and see how sections relate to each other. Accessibility walks also hand in hand with search engine optimization: by looking after accessibility, we improve the SEO quality of our content, and gain more visibility in search engines. Additionally, consider these:

  • Use text styles for headings, paragraphs and lists, and list content by level of importance. Avoid excessive formatting or other styling (bold text, italics, underlining) for presenting structure. Remember also sufficient contrast between text colour and its background.

  • Use clear and simple language. Avoid jargon and write your content so that it is readable and understandable to the broadest possible audience. Provide definitions or explanations for any unusual words, idioms, acronyms and abbreviations.

  • Provide alternative texts for images, illustrations or charts. If an image contains important information, explain the content and the function with few words. If the image is purely decorative and doesn't deliver additional information, use empty alt attributes.

  • Provide transcripts and in-sync captions for videos and audio files. Make sure users can control when the media starts and stops.

  • Make also digital documents accessible. Use style elements to format the file, provide document properties and language info, and add alternative texts to images and graphs. 

Useful sources regarding accessibility

Information about the web accessibility in the European Union level can be found in English for example on the European Commision's Web Accessibility site.

In Finnish some good sources regarding accessibility are

  • Saavutettavasti.fi: a guidance site produced by Celia. Celia is a national center for accessible literature and publishing in Finland, working toward equality in reading and learning. Celia belongs to the administrative sector of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
  • Saavutettavuusvaatimukset.fi: a site produced by the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland. The agency is Finland's governmental authority of the national enforcement of web accessibility in Finland.