Internet Accessibility Action Plan
The Federal Council wants to further improve access to federal information on the Internet for people with disabilities. To this end, it has adopted an e-accessibility action plan for 2017. The aim is to integrate accessibility specifications into all relevant processes and structures.
The E-Accessibility Action Plan 2015-2017 includes measures to support the departments and offices, to provide aids and to develop e-accessibility recommendations. For example, a central information platform is to be created to ensure the exchange of knowledge and experience. Specifically, websites, electronic documents and applications must be designed in such a way that they can be read with reading programs and accessed without a mouse.
The action plan was drawn up by an interdepartmental working group on Internet accessibility. It was appointed by the Federal Council in June 2014 and will implement the measures by 2017. It will be supported in this by an E-Accessibility Confederation office limited to three years, which the Federal Council also decided on in 2014.
Since 2004, the federal government has been obliged under the Federal Act on the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (BehiG) to make its Internet offerings barrier-free. With the action plan, the Confederation also takes into account the requirements of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). It came into force in Switzerland in May 2014.
More than 1.4 million people with a disability live in Switzerland. For them, the Internet offers enormous potential for more equal opportunities and independence. Accessible information and communication technologies (ICT) promote the participation of people with disabilities in all areas of life. Accessibility thus also contributes to the professional integration of people with disabilities.
