Accessibility statement for the stm.fi website

The website of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health at stm.fi is subject to the provisions of the Act on the Provision of Digital Services (available in Finnish). Under the Act, public online services must be accessible; this means that they must be as easy to use and widely accessible as possible.

The website must conform to the level AA of conformance defined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) requirements (success criteria) by 23 September 2020.

At present, the website largely meets the accessibility requirements, and critical accessibility concerns have not be detected. 

An external expert evaluation of the accessibility of the website has been commissioned. In addition, we monitor the accessibility of the service through support programmes, for example. We will immediately address any accessibility concerns detected in the service.

More detailed information about the technical accessibility

The online service is not yet fully accessible.

Content and features that are not yet accessible

Errors on the page at the heading level sequence

The pages’ heading level sequence is partly incorrect. This may complicate browsing the page with a screen reader. There may be some additional heading levels without text in the page’s HTML code. These levels are visible to screen readers as empty headings. (WCAG 1.3.1).

Deficiencies in the alternative text for images and graphs

In the content pages, there are some images or other decorative images containing text, for which no alternative text is specified. There is a failure to transmit essential information due to the faulty alternative texts, such as in infographic images. (WCAG 1.1.1, WCAG 1.4.5)

Main navigation

  • The menu cannot be logically used with a keyboard.
  • The menu contains incorrect ARIA and role specifications. (WCAG 2.1.1)

Accessibility shortcomings of PDF files

The website contains The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health’s own PDF files with accessibility problems, which were published after 23 September 2018.

  • The files may contain visual elements and graphs lacking alternative text. (WCAG 1.1.1)
     
  • The files may contain layout issues that hamper the screen reader use, such as empty line feeds and headings with no heading levels. (WCAG 1.3.1)
     
  • Table structures of the files may contain issues hampering the screen reader use, such as table structures that are used for text layout, there are no programmatically determined column headings and similar data have been divided into several tables. (WCAG 1.3.1)
     
  • There are no links to the footnotes in the text of some files and interpreting them is difficult when using a screen reader. (WCAG 1.3.1)
     
  • There may be some deficiencies in the file metadata, such as missing headings (title) or incorrect language specification and author data.

Deficiencies in naming the links

On some pages of the website, the same link text may be used in links directing to different locations. Some of the link names are too general and do not function when taken out of context. The website contains image links without alternative text indicating the purpose of the link. (WCAG 2.4.4)

Broken links

The website contains broken links. Links are currently being repaired, both centrally and in connection with regular updates.

Layout design

In individual cases, the HTML code is used to design the content. The body text design may contain incorrect identifiers in the HTML code. The bold, font, u and strike identifiers may have been incorrectly used. These may be visible as errors to assistive technology users. (WCAG 1.3.1)

Embeddings

The website contains some social media or other embeddings without a descriptive heading (title). (WCAG 4.1.2)

Contrast problems

The colour contrast of the text and background is not sufficiently high in all places. There are problems in the menu, paging, text content and buttons, for example. (WCAG 1.4.3)

Content from other systems

The online service contains content from other systems, whose accessibility shortcomings are created in the original system.

Decision-making materials

On the website, PDF files that are not fully accessible are published from a decision-making system. These shortcomings hinder the use of the files with assistive technology. Alternative text, headings and language specifications are missing from the files. Their structures are partly inadequate.

The decision-making system will be completely renewed during 2023 and the material to be produced by the renewed system will be fully accessible.

Publications

The website contains links to PDF publications that are located in the Government’s Valto publication archive. The publications and publication archive have their own separate accessibility statements describing their possible accessibility problems.  (LINK)

Project information

Project information is shown from a separate system. These functionalities have accessibility shortcomings that hinder the use of the screen reader and keyboard navigation. Such functionalities are, for example, reloading a page when moving from one tab to another, modal windows in the information of an individual project and project search calendar.

The project information contains PDF files that are produced in different systems, such as in the case management system. These files may contain accessibility shortcomings, such as incomplete structures and feature information as well as lacking alternative texts. These shortcomings hinder the use of assistive technology. 

Content not covered by legislation

The website contains content that is not within the scope of the requirements of legislation. Examples of such content are

  • content published in the service by external parties that is not produced, funded or controlled by the service provider
  • files published before 23 September 2018
  • video or audio recordings published before 23 September 2020

Social media

The accessibility requirements have been considered in The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health’s social media channel content as of 23 September 2020. There is also some content among the visual and audiovisual material produced before 23 September 2020 that does not meet the accessibility requirements (e.g. subtitling, alternative texts).

Note! Due to the coronavirus outbreak, we have produced materials and guidelines mainly for experts and the documents are published in PDF format. We are aware of concerns related to the accessibility of this material. Upon request, material will be sent in an accessible format.

We are happy to receive comments and suggestions for improvements on the accessibility of content on the website. Please use the form below to provide feedback.

If you are not satisfied with the reply, or if you do not receive any response within two weeks, you may report this to the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland. More detailed information on how to submit your report and how the matter will be handled is available on the Agency’s website.

Contact details of the supervisory authority:
Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland 
Saavutettavuuden valvonnan yksikkö (supervisory unit for accessibility)
www.saavutettavuusvaatimukset.fi 
[email protected] 
Tel. +358 295 016 000  (switchboard)