The ITS UX team has reviewed the EU directive and the Danish Web Accessibility Act in terms of how this will affect apps and Infoglue websites. The team has compiled guidelines for how web editors take into account web accessibility requirements in their day-to-day work.These guidelines are available at https://www.its.aau.dk/vejledninger/infoglue/infoglue-guide/web-accessibility 

ITS is still working on the following points:

• Users should be able to navigate the website using the tab key - some functions do not support the use of the tab key.

The CMS system automatically complies with some of the guidelines. For example: 

• The website design and contents must adapt to different devices (responsive design)  
• Users should be able to use the zoom function  
• All headings, links, photos etc. must be identified in the code behind the website  
• The contrast between website elements must be easily distinguishable (minimum contrast colour ratio 4.5:1) 
• The size of icons and buttons must be no less than 44*44 pixels 

All document elements, such as headings, photos, etc. must be tagged, thus, adding documents to your website, such as PDF and Word documents, is somewhat time-consuming in terms of web accessibility. This guideline affects both technical and administrative staff (TAP) and academic staff (VIP). Full compliance with the legislation requires the use of a number of license-based tools. However, the number of licences to be issued to accommodate this is considered a disproportionate burden (cf.  Act No. 692, section 3(2) (in Danish)).  

All AAU staff members have access to the Adobe package that includes Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. In Acrobat Pro DC you’ll find an accessibility feature that enables you to check your PDF and identify and fix the most common accessibility problems. This feature does not meet all the requirements of the EU directive. For now however, this is the best tool available at AAU, therefore, we still recommend that you use this to check your most important documents. You’ll find more information on how to use Adobe’s accessibility check via this link: https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/acrobat/using/create-verify-pdf-accessibility.html 

In addition, we recommend that you not upload PDF files to websites and instead copy and paste text from documents directly on the website. We are aware, that this is not an option for research publications or lengthy graphics-intensive reports etc. 

The EU directive and the Danish Web Accessibility Act require all websites to publish an accessibility statement. This must be made available on [website name].aau.dk/was, and must specify which legal requirements the website does not meet. 

An accessibility statement must be prepared using a tool developed by the Danish Agency for Digitisation; thus, the ITS UX team will prepare accessibility statements for all websites published in CMS Infoglue. 

If you are the web editor of websites not published in CMS Infoglue, you are responsible for preparing and publishing an accessibility statement. You will find more information on the accessibility statement and the requirements of this statement at https://digst.dk/digital-service/webtilgaengelighed/lov-om-webtilgaengelighed/tilgaengelighedserklaeringen (only in danish). Please note: using the accessibility tool requires a NemID staff signature; you can create one by contacting support@its.aau.dk 

If you publish websites via other systems, you may use the above as inspiration for meeting web accessibility requirements, since this is based on meeting web accessibility requirements when using CMS Infoglue.  

Therefore, if you are responsible for systems that use a web interface, web applications and apps that are available to a large target audience, we recommend that familiarise yourself with the web accessibility requirements.

The EU web accessibility directive is based on WCAG 2.1 https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/  

Commencement

The Danish Web Accessibility Act entered into force 23 September 2018 

• Websites created after 23 September 2018 must comply with the Web Accessibility Act of 23 September 2019  
• Websites created before September 2018, and to which no significant changes have been made, must comply with the Web Accessibility Act of 23 September 2020  
• Apps must comply with the Web Accessibility Act of 23 September 2021