AGES strives to make its websites accessible in accordance with the Web Accessibility Act (WZG), as amended, implementing Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on barrier-free access to the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies (OJ L 327, 2.12.2016, p. 1). This accessibility statement applies to the website www.ages.at.

Status of compatibility with the requirements

This website is partially compliant with compliance level AA of the "Web Accessibility Guidelines - WCAG 2.1" or with the applicable European Standard EN 301 549 V2.1.2 (2018-08) due to the following incompatibilities and exceptions.

Non-accessible content

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

(a) Incompatibility with accessibility regulations.

Alternative text is missing for some non-decorative images in the content, making this information inaccessible to screen reader users. Thus, WCAG accessibility criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content) is not met. We plan to add alternate text to all non-decorative images. All new images will be published together with alternative texts. Some web pages contain links with identical link text that lead to different destinations. Thus, WCAG success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose in context) is not met. We plan to revise the link text in the content of the affected web pages.

b) Disproportionate load.

Our videos are hosted and published in the video platform Youtube. It is not possible to provide the required audio descriptions for some of these videos. Thus, WCAG success criterion 1.2.5 (audio description recorded) is not met. We believe that remediation would impose a disproportionate burden under the accessibility regulations. We plan to provide alternatives for time-based media as text in place of audio descriptions by September 2022.

c) Content does not fall within the scope of the applicable legislation:

Many, primarily older PDF documents and Office documents are not accessible. For example, PDF documents are not tagged, so they cannot be grasped or used by screen reader users. This means that WCAG success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value) is not met.

For older non-accessible documents that are still exempt from Directive (EU) 2016/2102, no comprehensive change is currently planned. Please let us know if you have difficulties with specific documents. We will prepare the content barrier-free on request and subsequently replace the documents or supplement them with barrier-free alternatives. For new documents, we strive to prepare them barrier-free according to WCAG 2.1 and PDF/UA-compliant before publication.

Creation of this accessibility statement

This statement was created on January 30, 2022.

The assessment of the website's compliance with the WCAG to implement the requirements of Directive (EU) 2016/2102 took the form of a third-party(Siteimprove) assessment of the basic components of selected web pages via evaluation according to WCAG 2.1 AA in January 2022. Individual page content is regularly reviewed by the web editorial team as new content is published.

Feedback and contact details

The offers and services on this website are continuously improved, exchanged and expanded. In doing so, usability and accessibility are of great concern to us. If you notice barriers that prevent you from using our website - issues not described in this statement, deficiencies in accessibility compliance - please let us know by email. We will review your request and contact you as soon as possible. Please send all communications and suggestions to us at presse@ages.at. Please describe the issue and provide us with the URL(s) of the affected web page or document.

Enforcement Procedure

If you do not receive a satisfactory response from the above contact option, you may contact the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) by means of a complaint. The FFG accepts complaints electronically via the contact form.

Contact form of the complaints office

These complaints are examined by the FFG to determine whether they relate to violations of the requirements of the Web Accessibility Act, in particular deficiencies in compliance with accessibility requirements, by the federal government or an institution attributable to it. If the complaint is justified, the FFG must issue recommendations for action to the federal government or the legal entities concerned and propose measures to remedy the deficiencies at hand. Additional Information on the Complaint Procedure Optional Content: Additional information and operating assistance

The Risk Communication Department strives to make the AGES websites as accessible as possible. In doing so, we have been following the WCAG 2.0 guidelines for accessible content since 2008 in accordance with the national legislation "E-Government Act 2004" and the applicable relevant anti-discrimination regulations. The review according to all A and AA criteria of WCAG 2.1 is carried out by Siteimprove at regular intervals.