Accessibility statement for the website of the Ministry of Justice, oikeusministerio.fi

The Act on the Provision of Digital Services applies to the website of the Ministry of Justice. Under the Act, public online services must be accessible, which means that everyone must have equal access to them. 

This accessibility statement concerns the website Oikeusministerio.fi. This statement describes the website accessibility status and the identified accessibility issues on the website, and provides information on how you can give us feedback on the accessibility of the service.  

Accessibility status

The accessibility of this digital service was assessed by an external expert organisation in October 2023. According to the assessment, the website largely conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA success criteria as required by the Act. We are improving the accessibility of the website in areas identified in the assessment. 

The key shortcomings in the accessibility of the online service are described below.

If the material you need is not accessible, please contact us by email saavutettavuus.om(at)gov.fi.  

Non-accessible content and functionalities 

Page headings 

The order of page heading levels in HTML is partly incorrect. The HTML of a page may contain unnecessary heading levels with no text. These levels appear as empty headings for screen readers. There are unnecessary hidden H1-level headings on some pages. (WCAG 1.3.1)

Text alternatives and images of text

Text alternatives for some images on the website are missing translations. In such a case, screen reader users are not informed of the contents of the images, for example in the case of timeline images. (WCAG 1.1.1, 1.4.5) 

External links

Some external links are not programmatically determined. The only information that screen reader users receive on this kind of links is that they open in a new tab, but the screen reader cannot read the anchor text of a text link or the text alternative for an image link. (WCAG 1.1.1, 2.4.4, 2.5.3)

Contrast

The contrast ratio between the text and the background colour is not high enough in all cases. There are contrast issues, for example, in text contents, buttons, project timelines, some images, and highlighting active items. (WCAG 1.4.3, 1.4.5, 1.3.1)

Blog comments

The comment field is missing a label, required field markings, and visually distinguishable placeholders and borders. (WCAG 3.3.1, 3.3.2, 3.2.4) 

Language selection 

A screen reader cannot tell whether the language selection is open or closed and which language has been selected. (WCAG 4.1.2) 

Accordions

Some of the accordions used on the website cannot be accessed, opened or closed with keyboard commands. (WCAG 2.1.1, 3.2.4) 

Use on mobile devices

In the mobile view HTML, the main menu and search function come only after the main content, which makes it slow and difficult to find them. (WCAG 2.4.3)

Accessibility issues in PDF documents

The website contains PDF documents published after 23 September 2018 that do not meet the accessibility requirements. 

  • PDF documents may include images and diagrams that are missing text alternatives. (WCAG 1.1.1)
  • Some PDF documents do not have a programmatically determined structure, in which case the screen reader cannot identify the elements or reading order of the document. (WCAG 1.3.1)
  • There may be accessibility issues in the headings, language definitions and metadata of some PDF documents. (WCAG 2.4.2) 
  • PDF documents may have layout issues that hamper screen reader use, such as unnecessary line breaks and headings with no heading levels. (WCAG 1.3.1)
  • Table structures in some PDF documents have issues that hamper screen reader use; for example, table structures 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 PDF documents, and interpreting them is difficult when using a screen reader. (WCAG 1.3.1)

Content imported from other systems 

The online service includes content imported from other systems. Any accessibility issues of these contents are due to the original system.  

Decisions

There are PDF documents on the website that are imported from the Government electronic decision support system and are not fully accessible. The accessibility issues hamper the use of assistive technologies. Some documents are missing text alternatives, headings and language definitions. There are also problems with the structure of some of these documents. The Government will reform the decision support system by August 2021. The material produced by the reformed system will be accessible.

Publications

Publications in PDF format, stored in the Institutional Repository for the Government (Valto), are published on the website. Long lines of text in some of these publications can make reading more difficult. Separate accessibility statements have been prepared for the publications and the Institutional Repository for the Government, describing any accessibility issues appearing in them.

Project information

Project information is displayed from a separate system. Some of these functions have accessibility issues that hamper screen reader use and keyboard navigation. Such functions include reloading a page when switching from one tab to another, modal windows on pages displaying information on individual projects, and the project search calendar. (WCAG 1.3.1, 1.3.2, 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.4.3, 4.1.2)

Among the project information, there are PDF documents that have been produced in other systems, such as in the case management system. These documents may have some accessibility issues, such as deficient structures and attributes and missing text alternatives. These issues hamper the use of assistive technologies.  

Content not covered by the applicable legislation

The website has content that is not subject to the requirements of the legislation. Such content is

  • files published before 23 September 2018
  • video or audio recordings published before 23 September 2020

Social media contents

The accessibility requirements will be taken into account in the contents of the Ministry’s social media channels as of 23 September 2020. The visual and audiovisual material produced before 23 September 2020 includes some content that does not meet the accessibility requirements, for example when it comes to text alternatives and subtitles.

Accessibility feedback 

We are happy to receive comments and suggestions for improvements on the accessibility of the website. You can send your feedback by email to saavutettavuus.om(at)gov.fi. In your feedback, describe the page (www-address) where you found problems and describe your observations as accurately as possible.

Supervisory authority

If you notice any accessibility issues on the website, first send feedback to the site administrator. Please note that it may take up to 14 days for a reply to be sent to you. 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)

This statement was prepared on 22 September 2020 and was updated 13 March 2024. We are improving the accessibility of the website in areas identified in the assessment. After that we will update this statement again.