Accessibility

The Croatian Academic and Research Network – CARNET recognizes the importance of digital accessibility for all users with emphasis on facilitating access to public services and information for people with disabilities by complying with the Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and the European Council of 26 October 2016 on accessibility of web pages and mobile applications of public institutions.

CARNET continuosly improves the user experience by applying the relevant standards of accessibility according to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an organization that deals with the standardization of network technology.

CARNET has developed Digital Accessibility Guidelines in order to ensure the accessibility of its digital content or applications already in the development process.

As a public sector body, CARNET must ensure accessibility of its web locations following the Act on the Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications of Public Sector Bodies of the Republic of Croatia (NN 17/19) of 23 September 2019, which presents transposing the Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and the Council on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies to the national legislation.

This accessibility statement refers to CARNET’s corporate website, on the web location www.carnet.hr.

Accessibility status

Web location www.carnet.hr partially complies with the Act on the Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications of Public Sector Bodies. Most of the requirements of the European norm EN 301 549 V1.1.2 (2015-04) have been fulfilled, with some exceptions. 

Inaccessible content

According to four general requests for ensuring accessibility – possibility of observation, operability, comprehensibility, and stability – exceptions to compliance with the Accessibility Act are manifested in the following parts of the content:

• Possibility of observation

The dynamic homepage leads to the content that does not always display in the same manner on screen readers used by visually impaired persons.  

• Operability

Mouse-activated areas, text or icon-shaped, are not large enough for users with motor disabilities. Searching without pressing the enter key is not enabled in the full-screen search engine in the same way that it is enabled in the search engines of individual blocks. Elements from the website footer, the “CARNET +” link and the site map are expanded in a way that requires moving the mouse down to be fully visible, instead of expanding upwards, keeping the distance from the bottom of the page unchanged. By extending these elements, the current solution leaves the distance from the top of the page unchanged.

When searching for CARNET member institutions, the whole subgroup should be a button to expand it, or the “+” on the right should be larger and more noticeable. The “News” block in the website header is not intuitive for screen reader users because readers do not recognize that existing links filter news. So, a better technical operating solution needs to be found.

• Comprehensibility

In addition to the arrow-shaped markings, used for browsing the list of CARNET’s collaborating institutions by scrolling left and right, it should be further indicated that there are more collaborating institutions than those visible on screen.

• Stability

In Internet Explorer, the content of the page always looks the same to screen readers. However, in other browsers, the content does not always appear in the same way.

Increasing the level of accessibility

CARNET will implement corrective measures to address the inaccessible content of its corporate website as much as possible, following the training of employees to create, manage and maintain the content of website and software solutions for mobile devices under the Accessibility Act. This will be implemented by the Central State Office for the Development of Digital Society, in cooperation with the State School of Public Administration, the Information Commissioner and the national umbrella organization of persons with disabilities.

Preparation of this Statement of Accessibility

This Statement was prepared on 23 September 2019, according to the Template of the Statement of Accessibility, which complies with the Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and the Council on the accessibility of websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies. It was established by the EU Commission Implementing Decision 2018/1523 of 11 October 2018.

An assessment method in the form of accessibility testing was used to prepare this Statement.

Accessibility testing was conducted by people with different types of disabilities who are advanced users of information technology.

Tests were performed on the following operating systems, web browsers and mobile devices: MS Win10, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, iPhoneXS iOS Safari. Assistive technology used during testing: NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) 2019 screen reader, Jaws 2019 screen reader, VoiceOver, on-screen keyboard.

Feedback and contact information

Customers can direct all inquiries regarding the accessibility of CARNET website to the Helpdesk.

You can contact CARNET Helpdesk by:

• e-mail: helpdesk@carnet.hr
• phone: +385 1 6661 555
• fax: +385 1 6661 630
• mail: CARNET Helpdesk, Josipa Marohnića 5, 10000 Zagreb.

Working hours of CARNET Helpdesk are from Monday to Sunday, from 8 AM to 10 PM.

CARNET shall respond to the user’s inquiry, notification or request regarding accessibility within 15 days from receiving the notification or request, or within the same period to inform the user of the subsequent deadline for the response, with a detailed explanation of the reasons for postponing. Under standard Helpdesk operating circumstances, CARNET will endeavour to process replies to inquiries within two workdays.

Inspection control

Information Commissioner of the Republic of Croatia is the body responsible for monitoring the compliance of websites and programming solutions for mobile devices of public sector bodies with accessibility requirements, and for supervising the implementation of the Accessibility Act.

In case of unsatisfactory replies to the notification or request for feedback on the accessibility of this website, users can contact the Information Commissioner by e-mail: pristupacnost@pristupinfo.hr.

In order to provide information to public sector bodies on how to ensure digital accessibility, the Information Commissioner also opened an Information line for digital accessibility at +385 1 2009 120, available every Wednesday and Friday from 1 pm to 3 pm.