Case | Karlskoga municipality
The journey towards an accessible website
When Karlskoga municipality was reprimanded by DIGG, it was clear – a lot of inaccessible PDFs needed to be removed. Instead of patching and fixing, they invested in a smarter and more sustainable solution.
Background and challenge
When legal requirements meet reality
In 2023, the Agency for Digital Government (DIGG) carried out an inspection of the Karlskoga municipality website. The inspection led to the discovery of several shortcomings in digital accessibility – in particular, hundreds of inaccessible PDF documents. The municipality was faced with a major challenge: how to quickly and cost-effectively ensure that all public information was accessible to all?
– What first looked like a simple measure, improving contrasts and structuring links, quickly turned out to be an extensive task that extended far beyond the website's surface, says Daniel Cullberg, Communications Officer at Karlskoga Municipality.
The challenge required both strategic decisions and practical solutions.
– What first looked like a simple measure, improving contrasts and structuring links, quickly turned out to be an extensive work that extended far beyond the surface of the website
Daniel Cullberg, Communications Officer at Karlskoga Municipality
Solution
New tools and procedures
– We quickly realised that we needed to rethink our approach, says Daniel Cullberg, Communications Officer at Karlskoga Municipality. "We couldn't spend enormous resources on adapting every single PDF for accessibility, but at the same time we needed to meet the legal requirements.
Instead of spending a lot of resources on adapting existing PDFs, Karlskoga Municipality chose a different route – to remove them completely. At the end of 2023, the website was emptied of PDFs, and the municipality invested in a new, sustainable strategy for digital accessibility. Sitevision's agile features played a crucial role in the transition.
Some steps in the strategy:
Key documents were converted into accessible web pages.
Fillable forms were replaced by e-services.
A new publishing workflow was introduced to ensure that all new material met accessibility requirements.
Staff received training and new tools to create accessible documents directly in Word.
The platform enabled us to do so:
Easily create accessible web pages instead of PDF documents.
Structure and optimise content to make it easy to navigate.
Ensuring that all new material met legal requirements through the platform's built-in accessibility support.
Create clear workflows for the division of responsibilities between municipal departments.
The result
A more inclusive workplace
After the change, Karlskoga municipality's website became both more accessible and easier to use – not only for residents, but also internally. Another positive outcome was that many previous PDF documents proved to be redundant, allowing the municipality to both improve structure and save resources.
– We thought we'd get lots of questions about where the PDFs had gone, but that hardly happened. It was a wake-up call – how much of what we published was actually relevant? Says Daniel Cullberg.
Karlskoga municipality has gone from seeing digital accessibility as a legal requirement to a natural part of its work. By rethinking and using the right tools, they have created a more user-friendly and inclusive digital environment.