Digital accessibility – What all students should know

Accessibility means the consideration of human diversity in digital services. In other words, it corresponds to accessibility in the physical world.

Accessible digital services can be used regardless of any functional restrictions, be they permanent or temporary. For example, people with a hearing disability require captions for videos, but captions are useful also to a student travelling in a rush-hour bus.

In Finland, accessibility is required also by the Act on the Provision of Digital Services, which applies to the online content and services produces by universities and other authorities.

How does accessibility concern students?

The law applies to certain public digital documents produced by students, particularly master’s theses, which are stored in the E-thesis system and made available to the customers of Helsinki University Library.

At the same time, content produced on a specific course does not need to be accessible (e.g., essays and presentations stored in a Moodle area), with the exception of content to be used recurrently. For example, a video produced by a student that remains in use as learning material must be captioned. Also in other course-related work, accessibility should be considered whenever possible.

Further information and instructions pertaining to accessibility are available (in Finnish and Swedish only) on the saavutettavuusvaatimukset.fi website of the supervisory authority.

To make a PDF document accessible, you must first make the original Word document accessible and then convert it into PDF/A-2a format using the appropriate procedure. A correctly saved PDF document contains all of the structures included in the Word document, which, for example, a visually impaired person can utilise to read the document using a screen reader.

Detailed and illustrated instructions for creating accessible documents are available on the Saavutettavasti.fi website (in Finnish only). You can find a thesis template (Word) that guides you how to make an accessible document in the thesis instructions.

At least the following should be taken into consideration in accessible Word documents:

• The file structure (headings, paragraphs, lists) is created using the Styles menu, not, for example, by changing the font size.
• The font is sufficiently large and intelligible (at least 12 pt), while the contrast between the font and background is sufficient and the text is aligned to the left.
• Images have text alternatives that describe the image content to those unable to see the images.
• Tables are created with the table tool of Word or Excel, and they contain a header row.
• The language and title (not the same as file name) of the document are assigned in the properties.
• Accessibility is ensured using Word’s Check Accessibility function.

Creating PDF/A-2a files

Using a PC:

1. You can find instructions for creating a PDF/A-2a file on the IT-Helpdesk webpage.

Using a Mac:

1. In Word, click ‘Save a Copy’ and select PDF as the file type.
2. In the save window, check ‘Best for electronic distribution and accessibility’.
3. Click ‘Export’.

NB! Do not use the ‘Print to PDF’ function to create PDF files. If you do so, the document will have no structure. Instead, it will resemble a scanned image.

At the moment, PDF files created using the LaTeX typesetting system are not accessible. As the source code of theses is more accessible than PDF files, you should submit the source code of your thesis as a ZIP file to E-thesis in addition to a PDF file. The source code will be publicly available in the Helda repository if you permit the open-access publication of your thesis.

1. Before submitting your thesis, remove any comments that contain sensitive information from the source code. 
2. Make the source code clear in terms of appearance. Make its structure logical and easy to read. You should also preserve an original, non-cleaned version of the source code.
3. Compress all files into a single ZIP file. 
4. Name the ZIP file as follows: firstname_lastname_mastersthesis_accessible.zip

Accessibility of the University’s digital services:

• Information on the accessibility of the Studies service is available in its accessibility statement.
• Other accessibility statements for students' digital services: Examinarium and UniHow
• Accessibility instructions for the University community (helsinki.fi)
• Further information on the accessibility of the University of Helsinki’s digital services on Flamma (requires logging in)

General information on accessibility:

• Website of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland, the supervisory authority responsible for accessibility: saavutettavuusvaatimukset.fi (in Finnish and Swedish only)
• Instructions for content producers on a website maintained by Celia, a national centre for accessible literature and publishing in Finland: saavutettavasti.fi (in Finnish only)