As of September 23, all websites of all government agencies must comply with the legal obligation of digital accessibility. That sounds like an enormous task. But what exactly does the word "comply" mean in this context?
The Temporary Government Digital Accessibility Decree requires government organizations to make their websites and apps accessible to people with disabilities and make a statement about it.
You apply the accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1, level A + AA;
You publish an accessibility statement for each Web site under the responsibility of your organization.
Applying the accessibility standard does not mean that on September 23, 2020, all of your organization's websites must immediately fully comply with all of the requirements of that standard. This is not always possible either, because you are dependent on your supplier, for example.
Making a Web site accessible is an ongoing process that involves demonstrable work on optimization. You should aim to work towards full compliance in the foreseeable future. To help you do this, we have created a handy roadmap.
To comply with the legal requirement on Sept. 23, you must at least prepare and publish an accessibility statement. Do this for all websites under the responsibility of your organization. In that statement, include the measures, including planning, that you will implement to optimize the accessibility of the website. So even if you have not yet made a specific website accessible: always publish a statement! Preferably use the register at www.toegankelijkheidsverklaring.nl.
The statement must conform to the official template. We recommend using the fill-in wizard for this. With this you can also publish the declaration directly in the register on www.toegankelijkheidsverklaring.nl, so that it can be found by everyone. Organizations that have not published a compliant statement on their website by September 23 are not in compliance with the law.
The statements are continuously monitored. This way, it can be seen whether the planned measures are actually implemented within the issued schedule. So make sure you keep working on improving the accessibility of all your organization's websites. And also update the corresponding accessibility statements at least once a year. In this way, you can be sure that your organization also complies with the legal obligation
View: Roadmap accessible website
This news item can also be found in the Digital Transformation dossier
