FAQs about web accessibility
Here you will find frequently asked questions and answers about web accessibility that have arisen at Lund University.
Documents
Yes. Lund University’s Image and Media Bank has accessibility-adapted Word, PowerPoint and InDesign templates with accompanying instructions.
The Word templates are available in two versions – an accessibility-adapted version for digital documents and another version for printed documents. Both versions are included in the download. Also included in the download are instructions on how to work in the accessibility-adapted template, as well as instructions on how to check and adjust an exported PDF file in the Adobe Acrobat Pro software.
Download templates and instructions from the University’s Image and Media Bank, under the tab Templates and Graphics (log in with your Lucat ID).
Log in to the Image and Media Bank – Templates and Graphics
No. It is complicated to adapt fillable forms for accessibility. From an accessibility perspective, it is better to use a web form.
Read about how to create a web form – Lund University’s guide to web accessibility
Yes, as of 23 September 2018, theses that are published as digital documents are subject to the legislation.
Documents, which are published before 23 September 2018, must be adapted for accessibility, just like newer documents, if they are needed to perform administrative tasks. This may apply, for example, to forms. But keep in mind that other documents, which are published before that date, can be requested in the available format if the visitor wishes.
Links
Yes, it is OK to include links to an article in LUBsearch or a specific database rather than uploading the article in Canvas yourself, for example. The publisher is responsible for ensuring that the article fullfils the legislative requirements governing accessibility.
It depends on who produced or funded the newsletter. One of the things the Agency for Digital Government (DIGG) states as being exempt from the legislative requirements are “digital services from third parties that are not funded, produced or under the control of the relevant public actor”.
If it is a third-party supplier, Lund University should require them to be accessible, as accessibility is in everybody’s interest. If Lund University is responsible for the service, Lund University must ensure the accessibility of the service.
Yes, it's no problem to have linked headlines. It can even be beneficial as headlines often well describe what the content is about and in this way it becomes clear what kind of content you are linking to.
Systems
When it comes to systems, these will need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. This is what the supervisory authority for the accessibility directive (DIGG) states:
“In the preparatory work for the legislation, the investigator argues that some internal systems should be made exempt. Unfortunately, there is no applicable definition of which internal systems are subject to the legislation and which are exempt. However, Swedish legislation applies in Sweden, and courts study the preparatory works if the legislation is not sufficiently detailed. The interpretation by our lawyers is that some internal systems (although it is unclear which) are exempt.”
Therefore, it is difficult to confirm if a particular system is subject to the legislative requirements or not. Use our contact form if you are a systems manager and wonder what applies for your system, and we will investigate it further. In general, important digital systems with many users should be adapted for accessibility.
Canvas, our university-wide learning platform, Blackboard at the Faculty of Law and Moodle at the Faculty of Medicine, are currently not subject to the law on accessibility to digital public service (DOS). If you use a different learning platform, you can contact the manager for the platform to find out what applies. However, in the long term, all learning platforms will be subject to the law on accessibility to digital public service when they undergo a ‘comprehensive review’. One example of a comprehensive review could be a change in learning platform or a switch to a new type of learning platform from the same supplier.
Funka has current checklists with specific accessibility requirements in accordance with the international web standard WCAG 2.1 A + AA, which corresponds to the legislative requirements. Use our contact form if you would like to access these checklists.
Yes, if the documents are public so that anyone can access them in LU Box they must be adapted for accessibility.
Accessibility statement
A website has its own domain, for example sam.lu.se where the letters before lu.se – in this case, sam – demonstrate that it is an independent website. (Compare this to lu.se/forskning, which is not considered to be an independent website.) The supervisory authority DIGG’s definition of a website is that it is “one or a number of webpages kept together in some way, for example, by having the same domain name, a common appearance or via a systematic way of navigating between the pages”.
The accessibility statement is to summarise the accessibility of the content for the whole website (i.e. all webpages, documents, videos, etc.). It should be easy for visitors to find the link to the statement, so you should ideally place the statement in the footer of the website.
The accessibility statement should reflect the current accessibility of the website or mobile application.
For a website with continuous publications, it depends on how often there are new publications or edits to the content. For a website that is (more or less) static, the accessibility statement is to be reviewed at least once per year. For websites with several editors publishing content daily, the statement may need to be reviewed several times per year for it to be sufficiently up to date.
Video and audio
Yes. According to webbriktlinjer.se, actors subject to the legislation should “design their websites, apps and documents disseminated via these, and as far as possible also content disseminated by a third party (for example, social media), in such a way that they are understandable, manageable, comprehensible and robust.” Therefore, if you post a video on social media, it is subject to the legislation.
There is no difference in the application when it comes to different target groups. A public website with internal target groups is therefore subject to the legislative requirements. When it comes to video, it is only newly produced (and not live streamed) material as of 23 September 2020 that is subject to the legislation.
Use what are known as closed captions. Closed captions are possible to turn off, and it is possible to select from different languages if there is more than one. If the video is in Swedish, the text should be in Swedish although it is also possible to add English or other language options. YouTube, for example, supports closed captions.
Lund University’s guide to accessible videos
Audio description uses sound to describe visual information. Videos should have audio description so that a user who cannot see the video is able to understand what is happening. In many cases, this can be done with a standard voiceover explaining what is happening. However, in more complex videos, a separate audio track may be required specifically for the audio description.
Yes. If you record a video live and publish it later, it is deemed to be pre-recorded and must therefore fulfil the legislative requirements on subtitling and audio description.
Contact
Contact Lund University's accessibility expert via our
contact form.
You can also join the team "Nätverket för webbpublicister vid Lunds universitet" that has a channel for discussing web accessibility. Join the team and go directly to "Webbtillgänglighetskanalen" (in Swedish) on Microsoft Teams