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Article updated 2025-02-05.
Written by Christofer Sandin.

What is the Accessibility Directive?

Since September 23, 2020, the rules of the Accessibility Directive apply to all public websites in Sweden. The directive is based on the EU Accessibility Directive and aims to provide all individuals with the same opportunities to access digital information. In Sweden, it is the Act on Accessibility to Digital Public Services that regulates Swedish public websites and apps since January 1, 2019.

Although we at Republic do not typically focus on large public websites, it is certainly beneficial to be aware of the existing regulations. This is especially true since the regulations aim to improve the web. A more inclusive web is also a better web, whether it concerns public websites or not.

The Act on Accessibility to Digital Public Services regulates the following two aspects for public websites:

  • The website must meet the accessibility requirements.
  • Those responsible for the website must write and publish an accessibility statement.

Why is a new law needed?

As more critical information becomes digital, it is more important than ever to ensure that this information is accessible to everyone.

“DIGGi loo DIGGi ley…”?!

The Swedish Agency for Digital Government – abbreviated for some reason as DIGG – is responsible for ensuring that the Act on Accessibility to Digital Public Services is implemented in Sweden. DIGG has created a summary with more information about the law on its website.

When do the new requirements apply?

The Web Directive was published in the EU's official journal in 2016, and in Sweden, the Act on Accessibility to Digital Public Services came into effect on January 1, 2019.

The law applies to all public websites and apps, regardless of when they were created and published.

For new websites, the requirements began to apply on September 23, 2019, while existing websites and mobile applications were given additional time, specifically until September 23, 2020, for existing websites and June 23, 2021, for mobile applications.

Soon, the law will therefore apply to all public websites and apps, regardless of when they were created and published.

How is everything realized in practice?

The Accessibility Directive is implemented through a specific European standard. It is called EN 301 549 V2.1.2 and is based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which is the organization aimed at developing standards for the web.

**Validate code and content** against WCAG 2.1 level AA.

In practice, the EU standard largely builds on the international standard for web accessibility, WCAG 2.1 level AA. It can also be downloaded as a PDF of about 150 pages, if desired…

At Republic, we have worked for many years to build accessible websites and we usually validate these against WCAG 2.1 regardless of whether it is explicitly included in the assignment. In our proposals, we include a validation at level A, but we can also help tighten the requirements to AA if desired. However, it is a collaboration between technology and editors that is essential for a successful result, as many aspects involve crafting material and content well. Especially if one aims for AAA, which is the highest level within WCAG 2.1, where there is a strong focus on content.

Concrete advice and guides can be found on Guidance for Web Development. According to the information there, WCAG 2.2 is expected to become the new official guideline in 2021, and then EN 301 549 will also be updated afterward. But as of this writing, version 2.1.2 is the applicable one.

Create and publish an **accessibility statement**.

In addition to the website or mobile application meeting the standards discussed above, public actors must also provide a so-called accessibility statement. This is a text that describes how they have gone about meeting the accessibility criteria mentioned above.

  • An example of an accessibility statement can be found on goteborg.se.

Who is covered by the law?

The law applies to public actors, which are defined by DIGG as follows:

The law applies to public actors, meaning that these actors are responsible for ensuring that their digital services meet the law's requirements. Public actors include state and municipal authorities, decision-making bodies in municipalities and regions, publicly governed organizations, and associations of these actors.

The term public actor also includes private actors that conduct professional activities in preschool, school, healthcare, and social services with public funding. Individual educational providers with permission to issue degrees, and who primarily receive state funding for undergraduate or advanced level higher education or for doctoral education, are also covered by the term public actor and by the law.

Examples of important characteristics for digital accessibility

DIGG provides a few examples of what constitutes important characteristics for digital accessibility:

  • Content should be able to be enlarged without affecting functionality.
  • All functions should be navigable and usable via keyboard or voice control.
  • Content should be able to be listened to via a reading assistive tool.
  • Text should be easy to read and understand.

There are many things that are not particularly difficult to do really well, as long as you do it right from the beginning…

In addition to this, there are a few other relatively simple things to implement that greatly enhance accessibility:

  • Ensure that metadata such as language, character encoding, and others are correct so that assistive technologies (such as screen readers) have the best possible conditions to interpret the information correctly.
  • Images should have a relevant alternative description so that people who cannot see the image can still access the information.
  • Good readability requires a strong contrast between text and background.
  • Forms should be easy to understand and provide informative and clear error messages if something is filled out incorrectly.

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