Accessibility Statement

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management (BML) is committed to ensuring that its websites are accessible in accordance with the Web Accessibility Act (WZG), as amended, implementing Directive 2016/2102/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies (Official Journal L 327, 2/12/2016 p. 1).

This Accessibility Statement is for the website www.schutzwald.at.

Status of compliance with the requirements

Due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below, this website is partially compliant with conformance level AA of the 'Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - WCAG 2.1' and with the applicable European Standard EN 301 549 V3.2.1 (2021-03).

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is not accessible for the following reasons:

a) Non-compliance with the accessibility provisions

  • The contrast ratio of several texts and controls is insufficient (WCAG Success Criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) and 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast).
  • Not all operating elements have visible Focus styling (WCAG Success Criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible).
  • The same magnifying glass icon serves to open and submit the search and to enlarge the slider images (WCAG Success Criterion 3.2.4 Consistent Identification).
  • The mobile search has no visible search submit button. If the search is started without entering anything in the search field, no notice appears to point out that no results have been found (WCAG Success Criterion 3.3.1 Error Identification).
  • The image galleries use incorrect ARIA Markup (WCAG Criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value).

b) Disproportionate burden:

  • Videos on the website are additional content to the information provided in text form on the website. Audio description is not easy to provide in YouTube and is not considered necessary because no important new information is provided. We therefore believe that remedying this would constitute a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility provisions.

c) This content falls outside the scope of the applicable legislation

  • The website offers documents (office application formats like PDF and Office documents) to download that were published prior to 23 September 2018 and thus fall outside the scope of the applicable legislation.
  • The videos made available on the platform are hosted by and have been published on Youtube.com. Videos published prior to 23 September 2020 fall outside the scope of the applicable legislation.
  • Content from third parties, including studies or presentation material from external lecturers over whom BML has no control, are exempted from Directive (EU) 2016/2102. No statement can be made with regard to the compliance of such third-party content with the accessibility provisions.

Drafting of this accessibility statement

This statement was drafted on 17 September 2020 (last update: 27 May 2022).

The website's compliance with the Web Accessibility Act (WZG) implementing Directive (EU) 2016/2102 was assessed in an accessibility audit based on WCAG 2.1 conformance level AA in September 2020 and in a re-audit in May 2022.

The following pages were audited:

Individual page contents are regularly checked by the website editorial team upon the publication of new content.

Feedback and contact details

The offers and services on this website are being continuously improved, replaced and expanded. In so doing, operability and accessibility are our primary concern.

Should you become aware of any barriers preventing you from using our website – issues not described in this Statement, a lack of compliance with the accessibility requirements – please let us know by email.
 

We will review your enquiry and get back to you as soon as possible.

Please send all messages and suggestions to abt-34@bml.gv.at quoting "Meldung einer Barriere in der Website www.schutzwald.at" in the subject line. Kindly describe the issue and specify the URL(s) of the Web page or document you are referring to.

Contact:
Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management
Stubenring 1
1010 Vienna
Email: abt-34@bml.gv.at

Enforcement procedure

If you are not satisfied with the replies from the contact provided above, you can file a complaint with the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG).

The FFG will accept your concerns submitted electronically using the FFG contact form for complaints (“Kontaktformular der Beschwerdestelle”).

FFG will review the complaints and check whether they relate to violations of the requirements set forth under the Web Accessibility Act (WZG), particularly to any lack of compliance by the federal government or any affiliated institution with the accessibility requirements.

If the complaint is justified, the FFG will suggest courses of action or measures that the federal government or the affected legal entities can implement to remedy the indicated failures.

More information about the complaints procedure