Accessibility for smaller organizations: How Krimpen aan den IJssel is approaching it
Is becoming digitally accessible even feasible for smaller organizations? The municipality of Krimpen aan den IJssel proves that it is. With a small team and modest resources, they have already achieved an “A” status for their main website. But how do you go about it? Strategic communications advisor Mike Plaisier shares all the details.
When the municipality of Krimpen aan den IJssel wanted to start working on accessibility about five years ago, it turned out that the Communications team was the best fit for the task. “We have the best overview of which websites we have and who manages them. Since I was already working on the websites, accessibility became part of my role. I was fine with that, not realizing it would become increasingly challenging,” says Mike.
Becoming accessible starts with gaining knowledge
So how do you get started with a new topic like this? “I had to do quite a bit of reading to fully understand what accessibility really means. And I started asking around at other municipalities to see where they stood. Capelle aan den IJssel already had someone on staff dedicated to digital accessibility. That person walked me through what they were doing and their plans. I did have to scale those plans down to fit our situation, though, because we didn’t have the same resources.”
The action plan that emerged from this initially focused on having the main website assessed. Much of the audit results turned out to be quite technical. Mike: “We worked closely with our website developer on this. They were still learning themselves, but were open to tackling this even without additional costs. With the help of the specialists at Swink, we managed to achieve Status A last year. That was the crowning achievement in terms of digital accessibility. But that doesn’t mean we’re done, because the site has to remain digitally accessible. That’s still quite a challenge.”
Ensuring internal compliance through procurement and training
Ensuring compliance within the Communications team turned out to be relatively straightforward. Mike: “There are four of us, three of whom manage the site. I explained accessible content to them. I still find it much more complicated to get the organization on board. That’s mainly because we work in a self-organized way. As a result, quite a lot falls on the teams themselves. Accessibility is therefore quickly seen as just another task to add to the list. That’s why we keep it within our team as much as possible and provide guidance to colleagues on accessibility.”
Convincing colleagues? Start with the “why”
At first, some colleagues thought accessibility was a bit of an overreaction. They saw it as rules that made their jobs harder. “A lot of colleagues didn’t realize that a significant percentage of people in the Netherlands—including in Krimpen—depend on digital accessibility on their website. Explaining this to them led to a better understanding. In addition, a consultant from Swink helped us develop an action plan and figure out how to effectively involve our colleagues in the process. That helped as well.”
Due to limited resources, we decided to involve only colleagues who work with the Communications team and the website. “Ideally, we would have held large-scale awareness sessions so that everyone would be informed.”
Another internal challenge is the flow of PDFs, which are often not accessible by default. “We decided to have Swink make the most frequently accessed PDFs accessible. This allows us to use our resources efficiently. And we’re trying to avoid creating new PDFs. Content that used to be posted on the site as a PDF is now more often presented as text.”
Not every website gets the same priority
Although the municipality of Krimpen aan den IJssel is well on its way, it certainly still has ambitions. “All websites under our responsibility must achieve Status A. The main website and the largest sub-websites already have that status. This allows us to focus on smaller sites. For some sites, it’s a matter of weighing the options. For example, we can’t expect volunteers at the petting zoo to completely overhaul the website. In that case, we choose to make the adjustments we can and leave it at that for now. Moreover, they indicated that they’re already looking into a new website anyway. Then we can get it right the first time. But I still find that a difficult decision.”
For such decisions, the municipality has a framework to determine whether a site should receive an A status. “The website must be part of our municipality, and the children’s farm’s website isn’t, even though they receive a subsidy. Krimpen Duurzaam, for example, is a municipal initiative. So we believe that one should be assigned Status A. If that isn’t possible for a website at that time, we need to assess what the website developer can do. If they can’t meet the requirements, then we have to look for alternatives.”
Accessibility tips for smaller organizations
Mike has a few tips for smaller organizations and municipalities that need to become digitally accessible. “Remember that you’re not in this alone. We sought advice from our neighboring municipalities, and that helped us a lot. We all have the same goal, so why not? So be sure to ask other municipalities and organizations how they went about it.”
Another tip is to take it step by step. “Smaller municipalities can’t always hire someone for this or free up time for current employees to work on it. So it’s an additional task. You can’t try to do everything at once, that’s not feasible. That’s why you should tackle it step by step. What do we need? What does the communications portfolio holder expect from us? Is funding available?”
Finally, it helps to use tools to maintain an overview. “We use DIP for this. That way, we know the status of each site, who manages it, and which website builder is associated with it. And ideally, I’d like to purchase a tool that completely takes the PDF issue off our hands. That’s a matter of money, but a comprehensive solution isn’t available in the Netherlands yet either.”
