An interview with the municipality of Deventer

More and more organisations understand that they have to act on digital accessibility. The Week van de Toegankelijkheid (the Dutch accessibility week), held at the beginning of October, has raised awareness of why digital accessibility matters. We spoke with Patricia Bolink, digital accessibility specialist at gemeente Deventer (the municipality of Deventer, in the Netherlands), to ask how they deal with it.

How long have you been working on digital accessibility?

The municipality of Deventer has been working on digital accessibility since 2010. At the time, our previous website was the most accessible municipal website in the country. Since then, though, the notion of digital accessibility has come to cover a lot more ground, as set out in the Tijdelijk besluit digitale toegankelijkheid (the Dutch temporary decree on digital accessibility). That is why we now also pay attention to producing clear, easy to find information, and to the way it is published. We still have plenty of ground to cover there: we need to create more awareness and put the right tools and techniques in the hands of our staff.

What have you as a municipality already done or put in place when it comes to digital accessibility?

The main website was audited by stichting Accessibility (the Dutch accessibility foundation). Within a month of their report appearing, our web developer had implemented the improvements it listed. They drew on my knowledge and on my own lived experience while doing so, and that certainly helped.

I gather that, as a municipality, you are quite far ahead on digital accessibility compared with some others. Do you have any tips for municipalities that find this harder?

We are on the right track, although we still have a lot to do on awareness. Digital accessibility is not a goal in itself for us. It is a means to improve our processes. We use it the same way when we implement other new laws, for instance the Wet elektronische publicaties (the Dutch act on electronic publications) and the Wet open overheid (the Dutch open government act). It also helps to have a specialist in house who knows the guidelines well, can run a technical audit, and brings lived experience.

Is ReadSpeaker webReader used much on your website?

webReader is well used. We communicated a great deal during the coronavirus period, and webReader was clearly used more.

What is your impression of ReadSpeaker webReader?

I think webReader definitely helps people who have difficulty reading and people with dyslexia. We can see that use has gone up over the past few months, so there is a need for this feature on the website. I never use webReader myself, because I have my own screen reader software.

What else is planned, or on the wish list, for the accessibility of your website and your online services?

A renewed website is coming soon, one that will be even easier for everyone to read, use and understand. We are also going to make progress on publishing the documents of the municipal council accessibly.