Digital Government Act

What does the Digital Government Act mean for your organisation and what do you need to comply with on digital accessibility? On this page, you will find more information about the legislation.

Who does the Digital Government Act apply to?
Accessbility statement

Introduction call

Man zit met een simulatiebril achter een laptop

To begin...

What is digital accessibility?

The government wants to ensure that everyone can participate in digital society. This is the reason why websites and mobile apps of government agencies must be accessible to everyone. So this also applies to people with disabilities. You achieve this by applying the international standard for accessibility.

How do you become digitally accessible?

To make this happen, the government created the Digital Government Act. You can read all about this legislation on this page.

History of the Digital Government Act

2006 - Convention on Disability
The UN created the Convention on Disability in 2006. The convention ensures that people with disabilities can use websites and apps as much as others. Therefore, they must be accessible..
2016 - Directive (EU) 2016/2102
Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on the accessibility of public sector bodies' websites and mobile applications.
2016 - Adoption of UN convention
The Dutch government decided in early 2016 to implement the UN convention. From 14 July 2016, this treaty will apply in the Netherlands. Read more about the UN convention on Rijksoverheid.nl.
July 2018 - Temporary decision
‘Temporary decision on digital accessibility government’. The decision follows from the European Digital Accessibility Directive (Directive 2016/2102).
September 2019 - Websites
All websites published after 23 September 2018 must be made digitally accessible.
September 2020 - All websites
Effectively all published websites of government agencies are now covered by the Digital Government Act (Wdo)
June 2021 - Mobile apps
From this point on, all mobile applications must also be digitally accessible.
- App audit
  Audit your app and get an accessibility declaration report.
July 2023 - Wdo
The Government Digital Accessibility Decree has been part of the Digital Government Act (Wdo) since July 2023. Schedule a WCAG survey to comply with this legislation.
- Complete WCAG 2.2 audit
  Complete audit according to WCAG-EM, based on WCAG 2.2, level AA.
- Content audit
  Ideal if a full WCAG audit is not needed. We figure this out together.
- Technical audit
  Do you want to develop your platform digitally accessible? Then opt for a technology study.
- App audit
  Audit your app and get an accessibility declaration report.

These are the main areas of concern

Article 3(1)

Public authorities shall make their websites and mobile applications accessible by applying standard EN 301 549 (this standard includes the requirements of WCAG 2.1, level A and AA).

Article 4

Public bodies shall publish a current accessibility statement for their websites and apps according to an established template.

Exceptions

There are a number of exceptions to this obligation (Article 2(2)), and organisations can claim disproportionate burden in some cases (Article 3(2), 3 and 4).

Who does the Digital Government Act apply to?

Staats-, regionale en lokale overheidsinstanties

Dit zijn overheidsorganisaties die behoren tot het Rijk, de waterschappen, provincies en gemeenten. Het totale overzicht is te vinden op almanak.overheid.nl.

Public bodies

Public bodies meet the following characteristics:

Established for needs of general interest (not industrial or commercial).
They have legal personality.
They are mainly financed, managed or controlled by government or other public law organisations.

Partnerships

The law also applies to joint ventures of one or more public organisations or public law bodies established for non-commercial general interests. Public bodies must check for themselves whether their joint venture falls within this scope. It may be useful to consult a lawyer in this regard

Who does the Digital Government Act not apply to?

NGOs

As long as they do not provide services commissioned by government organisations.

Privatised or private sectors

This could include sectors such as transport, gas, water and postal services.

Health care

Insofar as these institutions are not public law organisations.

Nurseries, crèches and schools

These organisations do need to make their essential online administrative functions accessible.

Public media institutions

Think NPO and RPO, as referred to in Article 1.1(1) of the Media Act 2008.

Source: Digitoegankelijk

The accessibility statement

As public sector organisations, you are required to report progress in an accessibility statement.

What is it?

Think of that accessibility declaration as a kind of ‘plan of attack’. You describe how digitally accessible your website or app already is and what problems remain. Based on the accessibility declaration, you are assigned a certain status, which indicates how digitally accessible you are.

Een collega van Websteen met het waarmerk drempelvrij.nl in zijn handen

Accessibility statuses

Your government organisation can be given a certain status. This status shows how digitally accessible your organisation is. This table gives you a handy overview of what each status means.

Status	A	B	C	D	E
Is there an explanation?	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
Is there complete and good research that is less than 3 years old?	yes	yes	no	no	Not known
How many requirements does site/app meet?	All 50	Less than 50	Not known	Not known	Not known
Audit scheduled within 6 months?	Is not necessary. The auditn is valid for a maximum of 3 years	Is not necessary. The auditn is valid for a maximum of 3 years	yes	no	Not known
Complies with law?	yes	Yes, if the measures are described and there is improvement every year	Yes, maximum from 6 months from publication statement	no	no

Source of table: Digitoegankelijk

The statuses explained in short

Status A

Status A is awarded when you meet all 50 success criteria of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This statement must be updated at least once a year. Do this by showing that you have solved accessibility problems. The report of such a survey is valid for 3 years.

Status B

Status B is given when an accessibility study has been carried out. This does not meet all the success criteria. The report of such a survey is valid for 3 years.

Status C

You get this status when no investigation has been carried out yet. And when you will cancel the website within 6 months or have it investigated.

Status D

Status D is given when your accessibility statement has expired after 3 years. And when no new examination has been carried out within 6 months.

Status E

At status E, no steps have been taken yet.

Schedule WCAG audit

DIRECTIVE (EU) 2016/2102

The Digital Government Act ensures the proper provision of digital services from the government to citizens in the Netherlands. It is in line with the European directive on the accessibility of government agencies' websites and mobile applications.

Important articles in this directive are:

Article 4 Accessibility requirements for websites and mobile applications

Member States shall ensure that public authorities take the necessary measures to make their websites and mobile applications more accessible by making them perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.

Article 5 Disproportionate burden

It states that public bodies must comply with accessibility requirements for websites and mobile applications unless they impose a disproportionate burden. When assessing this, Member States should take into account factors such as the size and resources of the body, and estimated costs versus benefits. If an exception is applied, the body should explain this and offer alternatives in an accessibility statement.

Article 6 Presumption of conformity with accessibility requirements

Article 6 of Directive 2016/2102 states that content of websites and mobile applications that comply with harmonised standards, the references of which have been published by the Commission, are presumed to be in conformity with accessibility requirements. If such standards have not been published, this applies to content that complies with specific tech

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