Accessibility Statement
The Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) will report on an overall level on the institute’s digital accessibility for our main website www.irf.se. We will also describe our tools to address any shortcomings.
As part of a major overhaul of content and technical platform during autum 2024, the accessibility of the main website has been reviewed and improved. Older content, mainly news items from before 2024, have not yet been analysed but the intent is to complete them during 2024. The websites spacelab.irf.se och rymdcampus.se were made 2019/2020 and will receive the same treatment as the main website, also during 2024.
The website spaceweather.se has been reviewed during 2023.
Webbplatserna www2.irf.se, irfu.se, umea.irf.se have not been reviewed and may contain more deficiencies than those listed below. The pages are partly under restructuring and some parts will be removed. The content of the pages will gradually be reworked, some parts will be included in the main website and will there be designed so that the content meets current requirements.
IRF strives to ensure that all websites and any digital services are robust and can be perceived, managed and understood by as many user groups as possible, regardless of functional variations and technical aids. The goal is to achieve a basic level of accessibility by following WCAG 2.1 level AA.
Deficiencies in digital accessibility
In accordance with current regulations IRF reports the following shortcomings for each digital service or channel. At present IRF’s main website partially meets the legal requirement for digital accessibility in public service and there is an awareness that some parts do not meet all the criteria in WCAG in the following areas.
Contrast
- Use sufficient contrasts in components and graphics: There are illustrations and graphs that do not meet the requirements for contrast. The illustrations will be replaced when new data is received or will get a new pedagogical descriptive text, and alternative means to access the data where applicable (i.e. table views in addition to graphics).
- Some, but not all, of IRF’s websites support “dark mode”, for increased contrast, activated by user (operating system or browser) preferences. All websites that are reviewed will be given this feature.
Pedagogy
- Some images lack descriptive captions or alt attributes: Work in progress – images will be given a descriptive, readable text.
- Broken links – will be fixed or removed as soon as they are detected.
Language
- Complicated language: IRF is a research institute and this will mean that some parts of the web page contain a more complicated language. To make it easier for all readers, we have chosen to work with an easy-to-navigate structure where the front page and the underlying levels have easy-to-understand texts. For in-depth study, the user is directed to the more scientific research pages and collections of data.
How does the IRF address the deficiencies?
There is a Digital Accessibility Group that reviews the institutes web pages and other digital channels based on current regulations and standards (WCAG). IRF’s digital channels are also examined with Lighthouse where you can check your website based on current standards. IRF also has a web editor group which works continuously with accessibility and development on the institute’s web pages.
Contact IRF if you find deficiencies in accessibility
Contact us if you find deficiencies that prevent you from accessing our digital service or if you feel that IRF does not comply with the law. This is an important part of our continued development of the websites and in our accessibility work.
Contact the Swedish Agency for Digital Government (DIGG)
If you are unhappy with how IRF meets the requirements for accessibility you can contact DIGG. DIGG is responsible for supervising the law on accessibility to digital public services. DIGG also provides an online form (in Swedish) where you can report your concerns.