Breaking barriers: empowering accessibility with Fellow Digitals
Blog
Fellow Digitals gives ‘inclusiveness’ a high priority: Connecting people, collaborating, and sharing information is our ambition when developing tools for the digital workplace. This means, among other things, that Fellow Digitals is constantly striving to improve the accessibility of its products. After all, sharing knowledge and collaboration on a daily basis should include everyone, regardless of people’s personal abilities.
In September 2021, the Accessibility Foundation conducted audits based on the WCAG Assessment Methodology on the digital accessibility and quality of Fellow Digitals’ intranet platform “Viadesk”. For the content, a demo environment of a “social intranet” provided by Fellow Digitals was used as a reference for users and customers to design their own intranets.
The result of these audits was positive, and thus the Accessibility Foundation declares that Fellow Digitals’ intranet platform complies with the WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility guidelines. These audit results have been described in the WCAG 2.1 AA audit report of Viadesk social intranet, version 1.1 of September 16, 2021.
Barrier-free platforms
The Dutch legislation for digital accessibility for the government stipulates that websites and mobile apps of government agencies must meet accessibility requirements according to a step-by-step plan. The basis for this accessibility legislation is the European standard EN 301 549 for websites, mobile applications, and the intranet.
For barrier-free technology and functionality, Fellow Digitals provides the solutions (tools and services), but the content is provided by the customers. This means that technology and functionality are developed and managed by Fellow Digitals. However, the documents, videos, and other content are posted on the intranet by users. So the users and administrators of the intranet platform also play an important role in making the intranet accessible.
The many valuable experiences we have gained through the certification of our social intranet are also being incorporated into the development of the company’s own eLearning platform Coursepath, which is already making great strides towards accessibility as a result.
Our support for you
The users of Fellow Digitals products can be assured that the technology and functionality meet the legal criteria for accessibility. Yet for an accessible intranet, the way content is designed and published is at least as important. We have compiled seven tips for creating accessible content.
We are also eager to help you with your own accessible platform. For example, if you need to conduct an accessibility test for your Viadesk social intranet, Fellow Digitals can assist you. Examples of suitable (accessible) content can also be shown. In this case, please feel free to contact us.
Last but not least, we provide a demo environment that meets all accessibility requirements to showcase how a platform can be set up in a very inclusive way. Contact us if you would like to have temporary access to this demo environment.
How to use Viadesk’s features for better accessibility
Our support page provides tips and guidance on how to get the most out of Viadesk. The entry shows how to enable the accessibility mode and make the platform as accessible as possible
We love to share our knowledge with you
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