Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to the Artist register on kuvataiteilijamatrikkeli.fi and was prepared on 22 September 2020.

This accessibility statement follows the European Commission model accessibility statement (external) and the instructions by the Southern Finland Regional State Administrative Agency (external, in Finnish).

The Artists’ Association of Finland (Suomen Taiteilijaseura – Konstnärsgillet i Finland) (external) is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with applicable legislation. The accessibility of the service has been implemented, tested and assessed by the external expert organisation Konsepto (external).

Feedback on accessibility

Have you noticed an accessibility issue on our website? Please tell us about it, and we will do our best to fix it.

You can give us feedback on accessibility using the feedback form or by emailing us at matrikkeli@artists.fi (email).

Compliance status

This website partially is partially compliant with the requirements of the Web Accessibility Directive, due to the non-compliances and the exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons:

  1. Disproportionate burden
  2. The content is not within the scope of the applicable legislation
  1. Disproportionate burden

Visual artists (members of the association) must log in in order to control their own data; the accessibility of this has not been tested or fixed so it is deemed to be non-accessible. Correcting this problem would currently be an unreasonable burden.

  1. Not within the scope of the applicable legislation

The website contains a significant amount of textual content, links, images and CV files (PDFs, Word documents and possibly others) produced by the artists that are not within the scope of the applicable legislation. The majority of the content in the register can be considered archived works in the cultural heritage collection that does not fall within the scope of the applicable legislation.

Content that does not fall within the scope of the applicable legislation:

  • content posted on the service by users or other third parties that is not produced, funded or controlled by the service provider;
  • reproductions of works in cultural heritage collections that cannot be converted into a format that meets accessibility requirements;
  • office software files (e.g. DOC, PDF, ODT) published before 23 September 2018;
  • online content archived before 23 September 2019.

Accessibility problems

The website currently has the problems listed below concerning compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (external) (WCAG 2.1 Levels A and AA).

  1. Accessibility of the visual artists’ own data control

The website includes a closed section for visual artists that requires a login to manage their own data (artists’ personal details, information about their works, etc.). The accessibility of this section has not been tested or fixed so it is deemed to be non-accessible. Correcting this problem would currently be an unreasonable burden.

Compliance failures:

  • Not available
  1. Accessibility of user-contributed files

The website offers downloadable user-contributed PDF files, Word documents and possibly other files created with office software that have not been made accessible. In terms of PDF files, problems are caused by screen readers that read content in the wrong order, images that miss alternative text, the text and background contrast and text added as image. Fixing this issue is not within the scope of the legislation because such content is contributed by users.

Compliance failures:

  • 1.1.1 Non-text content
  • 1.3.1 Info and relationships
  • 1.3.2 Meaningful sequence
  • 1.3.3 Sensory characteristics
  • 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum)
  • 1.4.5 Images of text
  • 1.4.11 Non-text contrast
  • 3.1.2 Language of parts
  1. Text alternatives for user-contributed images

The website contains a significant amount of visual material contributed by the artists, such as photographs of artists and works, which do not have a written description of the content of the images required to create a specific sensory experience. The names of the artists and the works have been used as descriptions instead. Fixing this issue is not within the scope of the legislation because such content is contributed by users.

Compliance failures:

  • 1.1.1 Non-text content
  1. Multiple languages in user-contributed content

The website has a significant number of passages in different languages, the reasons for which include the fact that the titles of the works are often (only) in Finnish or English (sometimes in other languages), many artists have foreign names and the titles of the exhibitions and corresponding biography entries are in foreign languages. These passages do not have specified language information defined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Unfortunately, screen readers usually do not know how to change the pronunciation language automatically, which results in pronunciation that is difficult to understand.

The language information cannot be automatically specified correctly for the passages, and specifying it by hand afterwards would be a disproportionate burden, and it does not seem practical to expect the artists to implement this or provide them with instructions on how to do this. Fixing this issue is not within the scope of the legislation because such content is contributed by users.

Compliance failures:

  • 3.1.2 Language of parts

Supervisory authority

If you notice any accessibility issues on the website, please give us feedback. Please note that it may take up to 14 days for a reply to be sent to you.

Should you not be satisfied with the answer or if you do not receive an answer from us within two weeks, you may file a report to the Southern Finland Regional State Administrative Agency (external). The agency website has detailed instructions (in Finnish and Swedish only) on how to file a complaint and how the issue will be handled.

Contact information of the supervisory authority

Southern Finland Regional State Administrative Agency
Accessibility supervision unit

Website: saavutettavuusvaatimukset.fi (external)
Email: saavutettavuus@avi.fi (email)
Telephone: (switchboard) +358 295 016 000 (telephone)