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City's Objective
In the accessibility of digital services, Helsinki aims to achieve at least Level AA or higher according to the WCAG guidelines, if reasonably possible.
Compliance Status
This website meets the critical accessibility requirements set by law, following WCAG 2.1 Level AA, with the following identified shortcomings.
Non-accessible Content
The following content does not yet meet all the accessibility requirements set by law.
Identified Shortcomings
Focus on Cookie Consent: The site's cookie consent does not capture keyboard focus, requiring the page to be navigated for buttons to receive focus (WCAG 2.1: 2.4.3 Focus Order).
Visible Focus: The site has elements lacking a visible focus indicator (WCAG 2.1: 2.4.7 Visible Focus).
Focus Order: Some buttons on the site do not move focus to a logical location for seamless browsing. Some text paragraphs have unclear reading order, making content comprehension difficult with assistive technology (WCAG 2.1: 2.4.3 Focus Order).
Functionality of Elements: The site has input fields, buttons, or links lacking an accessible name and/or role, or they are ambiguously defined (WCAG 2.1: 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value).
Responsiveness: Some navigation menus on the site scale inconsistently, and some headings/text do not arrange in a way that avoids horizontal scrolling in a narrow view (WCAG 2.1: 1.4.10 Responsiveness).
Navigation: In some cases, links leading to the same page are named differently, or navigation menus are presented inconsistently across different pages, complicating the understanding of the page navigation logic (WCAG 2.1: 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation).
Page Language: Some text does not correspond to the selected language on the site, or language settings are not correctly defined for assistive technology (WCAG 2.1: 3.1.2 Language of Parts).
Tables: It is not possible to scroll site tables horizontally using the keyboard in a narrow view (WCAG 2.1: 2.1.1 Keyboard).
Non-text Content: Text equivalents are not available for all non-decorative images or graphics (WCAG 2.1: 1.1.1 Non-text Content).
Colors and Contrast: Some text/buttons on the site have insufficient contrast and/or convey meaning solely through color (WCAG 2.1: 1.4.1 Use of Color, 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)).
Notifications of Content Changes: Some content changes are not automatically conveyed to assistive technology, or the change is unclearly indicated (WCAG 2.1: 4.1.3 Status Messages).
Automatically Updating Content: The site has a search function that automatically updates content without user input (WCAG 2.1: 3.2.2 Input).
Video Embed Controls: Video embeds prevent keyboard scrolling to content preceding them, hindering page navigation. An accessibility update for the Helsinki Channel's video player is scheduled for 2024.
PDF Files: The site contains PDF files with structural elements not technically coded for assistive technology (such as images, headers, links), and their page headers or logical reading order are not defined. Some PDF content is entirely inaccessible, such as scanned drawings found in some decision attachments with no textual equivalent. HTML equivalents are available for decision protocols (WCAG 2.1: 1.1.1 Non-text Content, 1.3.1 Info and Relationships, 2.4.2 Page Titled, 2.4.3 Focus Order).
Correcting shortcomings
The City of Helsinki is continuously taking action to correct the shortcomings observed in accessibility. The city will update the list of accessibility shortcomings presented in this statement as shortcomings are corrected.