Glossary

The Federal Act on Accessibility Requirements for Products and Services (Accessibility Act – BaFG) transposes the Directive (EU) 2019/882 on the accessibility requirements for products and services (European Accessibility Act – EAA) (external link).

Public sector bodies must publish an accessibility statement on their websites or apps. This declaration provides detailed, comprehensive and clear information on the digital accessibility of the respective offer in an accessible format. Operators check and update them regularly, at least once a year. More information on the accessibility declaration can be found here (external link).

A cookie is a small file that is stored on your computer or app when you visit a website. The cookie allows the website, for example, to remember certain actions and settings (user name, language, font size and other display parameters) for a certain period of time, so that you do not have to re-enter this information every time you visit the website or switch from one page to another.

In order to take into account all the different service sectors and administrative levels in the sample, they are drawn in equal parts and not according to their actual distribution in the population. This ensures that everyone is equally taken into account.

The enforcement procedure is designed to ensure compliance with the Web Accessibility Directive. In Austria, it has been implemented in such a way that all users of public-sector websites and apps can contact the relevant service point/ complaint body if they encounter barriers in these digital offers and have not received satisfactory feedback through direct contact with the operators.

Each website and app provides a contact option in the accessibility statement through which users can report accessibility deficiencies. The feedback mechanism also allows users to obtain information on content that is not covered by the Web Accessibility Directive or is excluded from it.

Detailed manual checks on all accessibility requirements (including tool support where it makes sense). The result is an assessment of compliance with the accessibility requirements. It is determined which criteria are met and which are not. Detailed recommendations on how to improve accessibility are provided for the non-fulfilled criteria.

A mobile application is a computer program that can be installed and run on mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets and has been specially programmed for this purpose. A mobile application is also called an app.

Non-conformity is synonymous with nonconformity. If something is not compliant, it means that a requirement is not met. The simplified checks of websites are carried out to check for non-compliance.
This means that no statement can be made as to whether the simplified website has met criteria. Only one statement can be made as to whether or not errors were found with the tests performed on the reviewed criteria.

Die Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft (FFG) (external Link - only in German) "Austrian Research Promotion Agency" is the central organisation for the promotion and financing of research, development and innovation in Austria. The aim of the FFG is to strengthen Austria as a research and innovation location in global competition and thus to secure high-quality jobs and prosperity in Austria in the long term.

In the European Standard EN 301 549 (PDF) (external link) illustrates the relationship between the accessibility criteria and the accessibility requirements of users. So-called functional performance statements can be assigned to the criteria. 11 functional performance statements are defined:

• Use without vision
• Use with limited vision
• Use without color perception
• Use without hearing
• Use with limited hearing
• Use without voice
• Use with limited handling or power
• Use with limited range
• Minimizes triggers for light-sensitive seizures
• Use with cognitive limitations
• Privacy

If an accessibility criterion supports a functional performance statement, then there is a primary correlation.

Refers to an action or initiative that can be implemented quickly and with relatively little effort, delivering immediate, positive results.

The results of the accessibility checks are documented by an online­ report tool. A report on the results is generated for each website and app checked.

A screen reader is software that conveys the graphical user interface e.g. of a website acoustically or tactilely.

The European Standard EN 301 549 (PDF) (external link) illustrates the relationship between the accessibility criteria and the accessibility requirements of users. So-called functional performance statements can be assigned to the criteria. 11 functional performance statements are defined:

• Use without vision
• Use with limited vision
• Use without color perception
• Use without hearing
• Use with limited hearing
• Use without voice
• Use with limited handling or force
• Use with limited range
• Minimizes triggers for light-sensitive seizures
• Use with cognitive limitations
• Privacy

If an accessibility criterion partially supports a functional performance statement because some users may use the function in certain situations, then there is a secondary relationship.

For the simplified checks, a selection of the accessibility criteria is checked for non-conformity. The criteria are analyzed almost exclusively automatically (with the help of an accessibility testing tool). It is determined whether errors are found for the selected criteria. For the simplified checks, it is not possible to check whether accessibility criteria are met.

The WAD Report Tool is a software that the FFG uses to create monitoring reports. WAD stands for Web Accessibility Directive. This is the EU directive on which accessibility monitoring is based. The tool is an extension of the WCAG-EM Report Tool (external link) of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) (external link).

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) (external link) is an initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (external link). WAI develops technical specifications, guidelines, techniques and supporting resources that describe accessibility solutions. These are considered international standards for barrier-free web.

Accessible Rich Internet Applications of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) (external link) ARIA is particularly needed if native HTML is not used, but custom components are developed, or if technologies are used that do not have accessibility built in directly. ARIA extends the source code with accessibility information.

The Web Accessibility Act (external link - only in German), short WZG, is a law in Austria. The WZG transposed the Web Accessibility Guideline (external link) into national legislation in Austria.

This is a Directive (EU) 2016/2102 (external link) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on the accessibility of the websites and apps of public sector bodies. It obliges public sector bodies in the EU Member States to provide accessible digital services. The directive forms the basis for national legislation such as the Web Accessibility Act at the federal level in Austria.