Currently, not all municipal websites and apps are accessible. The Association of Dutch Municipalities’ (VNG) Digital Accessibility Promotion Team is working hard to improve this. Yousuf Yousufi: “This is important, about a quarter of residents have some form of disability.”
Yousufi: “The VNG’s Digital Accessibility Promotion Team was established in 2021, I have been involved as an ambassador since the beginning. In this role, I hold discussions with mayors, aldermen, administrators and directors of communal schemes about accessibility. I notice a growing demand for knowledge on how to involve the whole organisation in this topic. It has now dawned on people that you can’t just post a PDF document that is not accessible. The next step is to improve their information channel. Think about subtitling council meetings and integrating read-aloud functions on the website.”
VNG forum: a lively community
What tools is the Promotion Team deploying? Ambassador Yousufi: “We share information via free webinars and knowledge sessions. Surely the most frequently asked question is about making PDF documents accessible. You can also find a lot of information on the VNG forum, it’s a lively community with 3,000 members. The forum helps municipalities to share good examples and plans of action before starting their own. No need to reinvent everything yourself. Furthermore, our Promotion Team gets valuable information from the Dashboard DigiToegankelijk. We use that to prepare conversations with administrators and send them an overview of where the organisation stands in terms of accessibility requirements. This helps directors see where they can make improvements and how they compare with other municipalities.”
Learn from each other
Yousufi encourages government organisations to share great examples of how they approach accessibility. “Some municipalities are doing very well and other government organisations can learn from them. Water boards, provinces and ministries also have success stories; I would love to hear them. I think joining forces and sharing good examples is essential to improve government services for all residents.”
Do you have a programme or example you would like to share with the Promotion Team? Let them hear from you at DigitaleToegankelijkheid@vng.nl. You can also approach them for questions or advice on developing a local approach.
Want to get started right away? The VNG toolkit (only available in Dutch) will help you get started.
