Emergency Response Centre Agency to improve the accessibility of the 112 Suomi application and 112.fi website

The Digital Services Act, which entered into force in April 2019, obliges the public sector to comply with accessibility requirements. The act is based on the European Union’s Accessibility Directive. It is also influenced by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which emphasises the involvement of special groups and the possibility to use services independently, including in the digital environment.

The Emergency Response Centre Agency has audited the accessibility of the 112 Suomi mobile application and the 112.com website during the summer. The application and website are being developed on the basis of comprehensive reports to allow them to be used even better in the future with assistive technology.

Regional State Administrative Agency to monitor the implementation of the Digital Services Act

112 Suomi has been selected for the comprehensive accessibility monitoring programme for mobile applications. The application will be evaluated during the 2021 review period by the Regional State Administrative Agency, which acts as the supervisory authority. As a result of the external audit carried out in the summer, the Emergency Response Centre Agency has already initiated corrective measures to improve the accessibility of the application and aims to complete them by the spring of 2022.

As regards the website, the site already covers accessibility requirements well, but corrections will still be made. Particular emphasis is to be placed on the logic of navigation and using a screen reader. The website was not selected for the Regional State Administrative Agency’s extensive monitoring this year. 

Accessibility applies to all of the Agency’s digital services

According to the 2021–2024 strategy programme, the Emergency Response Centre Agency is committed to providing high-quality, reliable and equal emergency response centre services. Special groups will be better taken into account in the development and provision of digital services and emergency response centre services. For example, a pilot project for a sign language emergency call service was launched together with Kela this year, and it has been possible to report an emergency by SMS since 2017. The service requires registration.

Observations from the audit are presented in the accessibility statement of the 112 Suomi application and the 112.fi website. The statements will be updated as corrections progress.

Want to leave feedback on accessibility? You can do so using the Emergency Response Centre Agency’s feedback form. We respond to feedback if it is not anonymous, and use it to make our services more accessible.