As of September 23 this year, the Government Digital Accessibility Decree applies to all websites of all government agencies. Due to the corona crisis, DigiToegankelijk has been asked several times whether it would not be better to postpone this date. For example, the effective date of the Environment Act, which was to take effect in 2021, has been pushed back partly for this reason. The Decree has been in effect since July 2018.
The date of Sept. 23, 2020, remains, as far as is currently known. In this regard, it is important to know exactly what the legal obligation means. As of the said date, public bodies must apply the accessibility standard to all their websites. If a website is not yet fully accessible, the organization must work toward full compliance with all accessibility requirements based on a structured approach and within a reasonably feasible time frame. An accessibility statement, signed by a director or responsible official, declares how far the government agency has progressed with website accessibility. Four different statuses are possible: does not meet the standard, first steps taken, partially meets the standard, fully meets the standard.
A government agency fulfills the obligation by:
Accessibility requirements to apply
Government agencies are required to optimize the accessibility of websites and apps based on the accessibility standard (European standard EN 301 549. This is equivalent to WCAG 2.1, level A and AA).
Publish an accessibility statement
Government agencies are required to prepare and publish an accessibility statement for all their websites and apps. The statement states what measures the organization is taking, including a schedule, to make and keep the website accessible.
As a government agency, what do you need to have in place to ensure that you meet the legal requirement by Sept. 23, 2020? Specifically, these are four steps:
Make sure you have an overview of all websites that are the responsibility of your organization.
Name measures. You do this based on a complete accessibility study. If this has not yet been conducted, schedule the survey as soon as possible. If it cannot be done by September 23, 2020, schedule it as soon as possible after that date and include that schedule in the accessibility statement. And is it clear in advance that it is not feasible to improve accessibility? If so, choose as a measure to start completely revamping or phasing out the website.
Publish an accessibility statement for each Web site by Sept. 23. You can include the measures you named in step 2. Use the form wizard at www.toegankelijkheidsverklaring.nl. This makes it easy to create a statement that meets the legal requirements.
In the meantime, keep working (if necessary) to improve the accessibility of your websites.
Make use of all the information on digitoegankelijk.nl. In this way, you will ensure that your organization is in control before the legal obligation starts.
This news item can also be found in the Digital Transformation dossier
