Declaration on
accessibility

JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH endeavours to make its websites accessible in accordance with the Act on Web Accessibility (WZG), BGBl. I. No. 59/2019 as amended, to make them accessible without barriers.

This declaration on accessibility applies to the website www.joanneum.at as well as to project websites of JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH.

 

Status of compatibility with the requirements

This website is compliant with conformance level AA of the "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - WCAG 2.1" and with the applicable European Standard EN 301 549 V2.1.2 (2018-08) but with the following incompatibilities and exceptions.

Non-accessible contents

The content listed below is not accessible for the following reasons:

 

A) Incompatibility with accessibility regulations

  • Some elements and fonts do not have sufficient colour contrast (1.4.3 Contrast and 1.4.11 Non-text contrast). In the opinion of the operator, this has to do with the stringent implementation of the corporate design. In terms of accessibility, the user is offered an increase in contrast via the integrated accessibility tool.
  • Individual text elements do not correspond to the required size (1.4.4 Text size). In the interests of accessibility, the user is offered an easier-to-read font that corresponds to the text size via the integrated accessibility tool.
  • Some text alternatives are missing for images, graphics and objects (1.1.1 Non-text content).
  • The focus sequence is not optimal (2.4.3 Focus sequence).
  • However, there are isolated validation errors, but this does not affect the functionality. (4.1.1 Syntax analysis and 4.1.2 Name, role, value).

 

B) Disproportionate burden

  • In some cases, terms and words from the scientific field are used that are not easy to understand (3.1.1 Language of the site and 3.1.3 Unusual words). As the provider is a research organisation, the readable content becomes more complex with the depth of the website. Bypassing this complexity represents a disproportionate burden for the operator. However, content editors are trained to present texts that are easy to understand, where possible.
  • Videos are hosted and published on the video platform ‘YouTube’. It is not possible to provide the required audio descriptions or a textual alternative. This means that WCAG success criteria 1.2.3 and 1.2.5 (audio description or media alternative) are not met. The website operator is of the opinion that remedying this criterion would represent a disproportionate burden in terms of the accessibility regulations.
  • Embedded PDF documents are not yet 100% accessible. The operator plans to continuously optimise these documents, which will be put online in the future, and to train the editorial team in the accessible design of PDF documents. An overview of the content stored in PDF can also be found in the content section of the website for the most part and therefore represents a good alternative.

 

C) Content that does not fall within the scope of the applicable legislation

  • Online map and mapping services, such as Google Maps
  • External iFrame integrations, such as Matterport

 

Creation of the accessibility declaration

This declaration was issued on 30 April 2024.

The assessment was carried out in form of a self-test according to WCAG 2.0 at conformity level AA in the period from January to March 2024. The whole website and a selection of relevant subpages were checked.

Feedback and contact

This website is constantly being expanded, maintained and improved. In doing so, usability and accessibility are of great concern to us. If you notice barriers that prevent you from using our website - issues not described in this statement, deficiencies in accessibility compliance - please let us know by email. We will review your request and contact you as soon as possible.

Please send all messages and suggestions to us at barrierefreiheit@joanneum.at  with the subject "accessibility of the website joanneum.at". Please describe the problem and provide us with the URL(s) of the affected web page or document.

Enforcement procedure

If you do not receive satisfactory answers from the above contact option, you can contact the Equal Treatment Officer of the State of Styria by means of a complaint. The Equal Treatment Officer accepts complaints electronically via the mail address gleichbehandlung@stmk.gv.at.

The complaints are examined by the Equal Treatment Officer to determine whether they relate to violations of the requirements of the Web Accessibility Act, in particular deficiencies in compliance with accessibility requirements, by the federal government or an institution attributable to it. If the complaint is justified, the Equal Treatment Officer will issue recommendations for action to the Federal Government or the legal entities concerned and propose measures to remedy the deficiencies in question.

Measures for barrier-free accessibility

It is our great concern to make our research content as accessible as possible for all visitors.

JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH takes the following measures to continuously improve the accessibility of this website.

  • Accessibility is part of our editorial guidelines. In addition, our editors are regularly sensitized to this issue.
  • We regularly conduct random quality checks on accessibility.
  • We continuously educate ourselves in the area of accessibility.