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Accessibility

When accessibility functions well, one does not generally think about it and it is not an inconvenience to anybody. Poor accessibility, however, will clearly leave those with any kind of disability at a great disadvantage.

Digital accessibility means taking into account individual differences when designing and developing digital services. Whatever is planned and designed by people with the purpose to be used by people, must also work for all people.

Plan for increased digital accessibility at Stockholm University

Stockholm University needs to meet the requirements placed on public actors regarding digital accessibility. To achieve this, SU has developed a plan for increased digital accessibility.

Plan for increased digital accessibility

Accessibility node

Creating and supporting accessibility calls for a wide spectrum of expertise as well as hard work. This calls for setting up an interorganizational node comprising a number of the university’s administrative units.

Where possible, this node should also take advantage of the expertise existing within the university, such as the Institute for Interpreting and Translation Studies or the Centre for the Advancement of University Teaching.

The node should have as its mission to coordinate and drive the accessibility work forward.

  • change attitudes and approaches through information and skills development, both in a broad sense and for specific target groups
  • coordinate, produce and communicate SU-adapted practical guidelines and quick reference material
  • test, evaluate, and improve work processes, tools and organisation
  • keep abreast of new information
  • build up and make visible the whole of the university’s competence relating to accessibility
  • manage and/or coordinate the development of routines to ensure the accessibility perspective in various processes within the university
  • monitor and evaluate progress

The node's mission is to provide support, not to perform the actual accessibility adaptations of materials. This responsibility lies with each department or administrative unit.

Laws and supervision

At Digg (the Agency for Digital Government), rules and recommendations for digital accessibility are collected in one place. On their website, you can search and filter results.

Digg – Agency for Digital Government

How do work with digital accessibility

Below you will find tips and advice on how to work with digital accessibility.

Accessible teaching

Accessible teaching means considering students' different needs. Pedagogical adaptations that are essential for a single student with a disability will often benefit the entire study group and can also lead to pedagogical development.

Accessible Teaching at the Centre for the Advancement of University Teaching

Accessible videos

Video is often a good way to increase accessibility, because video complements or serves as an alternative to other content formats.

All videos published for the public after 23 September 2020 must be subtitled and, in some cases, audio described. This is regulated by the Act on Accessibility to Digital Public Services (2018:1937).

University's Media Production service (the page is in Swedish.)

Videos must be captioned at the time of publication, except for live broadcasts, which must be captioned within 14 days after publication.

With the Speech-to-Text service, you can have audio files transcribed and videos captioned. There is support for transcription and captioning in multiple languages.

Speech-to-Text Service at the University (the page is in Swedish)

Accessible documents

It is always more accessible to present content directly on the webpage instead of linking to documents. However, if you use PDF documents, ensure they are created to be accessible.

  • If possible: Avoid PDFs and instead create content in HTML. The web is our most important channel for internal and external communication and is fundamentally much more accessible than PDFs.
  • If a PDF is necessary: Summarise the main content on the webpage where the PDF is linked, or include the entire PDF content as a complement on the web.

Here are the most important steps in order to make the PDF accessible when creating it from a Word document.

  1. Design the Word document correctly: Create headings using the style templates. Heading 1, Heading 2...
  2. Add alternative texts for images (ALT texts): Right-click on the image > Show alternative text
  3. Use Word's functions to create tables, lists, footnotes, endnotes, and similar elements.
  4. Perform the accessibility checks available in the program (in Word under Review > Check Accessibility). You can also get help adding descriptions for tables and images (referred to as alternative text).
  5. Create a PDF by clicking Save > File Format: PDF.
    • Enter Title, if missing
    • Click the Options button and ensure the following are checked: Document, Create bookmarks with Headings, Document properties, Show document structure tags (Mac: Best for electronic format and accessibility), Use bitmap text. If the document needs to be archived long-term, also check Compatible with PDF/A.

Do not use the Print as PDF function. Do not scan PDFs from the printer.

  • Long documents primarily intended to be read in printed format
  • Static over time, legal texts, government instructions, and guidelines
  • Dependent on layout, graphics, and content always being presented in the same way
  • Bound by law to look a specific way
  • Illustrated with tables with multiple columns or contain mathematical formulas or other elements requiring special document formats.

Write accessible texts

On the page Text Production (under Support and Service), you will find general tips and advice on how to write accessible texts.

Text production

Contact

Through our web accessibility function address, you can ask questions or report missing information. You can also report issues regarding accessibility of the website.

Accessibility Node
webbtillganglighet@su.se

Last updated: 2024-09-30

Source: Accessibility Node at Stockholm University