Accessibility statement

The Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) is committed to making its website accessible to all users in accordance with the Austrian Web Accessibility Act (Web-Zugänglichkeits-Gesetz – WZG), as amended, implementing Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and Council of 26 October 2016 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies.

This accessibility statement applies to the website www.oenb.at.

Status of compliance with accessibility requirements

The OeNB’s website partially conforms with the AA conformance level set out in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and with the applicable European Standard EN 301 549 V2.1.2 (2018-08), despite some noncompliance issues and based on some exceptions as described below. Insufficient color contrast in some areas of the navigation is still possible. We are working on an improvement.

Non-accessible content

Some content on the OeNB’s website is not accessible for the following reasons:

a) Accessibility issues

A full-text search is available on all web pages with a main navigation as search function. After entering the search terms in the search box, a dynamic list of search results is displayed in the same window. The page title and cursor position, however, remain unchanged. In this context, the following problems have been identified: After entering the search, the keyboard focus does not move to the area where the search results are displayed. This means that screen-reader users receive no information about the changed content of the web page. The search results can be accessed by using the metanavigation that is available at the top of each page (WCAG 2.4.1, bypass blocks). In the page navigation for switching between search result pages, the links leading to the first or last search result page cannot be accessed by keyboard (tab key) (WCAG 2.1.1, keyboard, and 2.4.3, focus order).

The color contrasts of the control elements in the news carousel on the home page do not fully meet the requirements in the desktop view and on tablets (WCAG 1.4.3, contrast, minimum). Moreover, the content of the home page does not contain a top-level heading that screen-reader users can directly jump to (WCAG 1.3.1, info and relationships, and 2.4.6, headings and labels). The individual content elements can be navigated sequentially by using the tab key.

Metanavigation to the page areas “navigation” and “content” is available; its usability depends on the users’ browser version, however, e.g. in the case of older versions of Internet Explorer (IE).

Interactive graphics are created using the javascript-based visualisation framework from highcharts.com with the integration of its accessibility module. The module provides the technical support to make the graphics accessible for assistive technologies. It is possible that not all values are read out correctly. Due to the complexity of some graphics, not all individual elements of the graphics can be worked out. In these cases, the basic information can only be extracted from the context of the page.

Office application formats that are necessary for day-to-day administrative processes, such as application forms, were provided in accessible versions or replaced with web form solutions by September 2020. However, should you experience any difficulties with such documents, please let us know. Upon request, we will replace the content or document you need with accessible content or document versions or provide other accessible alternatives.

b) Disproportionate burden

Our video clips are hosted and published on the video platform YouTube, where it is not possible to provide the required audio description for some of these videos. This means that WCAG success criterion 1.2.5 (audio description, prerecorded) is not fulfilled.

Adding audio descriptions, in particular to older video content, would represent a disproportionate burden and would serve no purpose for older content. Of course, the OeNB is committed to complying with all requirements when publishing new video clips.

c) Content outside the scope of applicable legal requirements

Old office application formats: Many PDF documents and Microsoft Office documents published prior to September 23, 2018, are not accessible. For example, PDF documents were not tagged, which implies that they cannot be fully read by screen-reader users. This means that WCAG success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value) is not fulfilled.

Time-based media: Many of the video clips published prior to September 23, 2020, lack captions; spoken content is therefore not available to users with hearing impairments. This means that WCAG success criterion 1.2.2 (captions, prerecorded) is not fulfilled.

Live time-based media: Captions are not provided for live video content. This means that WCAG success criterion 1.2.4 (captions, live) is not fulfilled.

Third-party content: We cannot make any statements about the accessibility of content that is outside the OeNB’s sphere of influence, such as studies or presentation materials of external speakers.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on September 21, 2020.

The compliance of the OeNB’s website with the Web Accessibility Act, implementing the requirements under Directive (EU) 2016/2102, was evaluated in September 2020 by means of self-assessment under WCAG 2.1 at AA conformance level. New website content is reviewed on a regular basis by the OeNB’s web editors.

This statement was last reviewed and updated on September 19, 2024.

Feedback and contact details

The content and services offered on this website are regularly improved, replaced and expanded. In this context, we attach great importance to ensuring user-friendliness and accessibility.

Please let us know if you detect any other cases of noncompliance with legal accessibility requirements not listed in this statement or if you come across any other barriers that make it hard for you to use our website. Please address any related messages or suggestions to the e-mail address below, using the subject line: “Report of an accessibility issue on the website www.oenb.at”. Please describe the issue you have discovered and provide us with the URL of the relevant web page or document. We will look into your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

Contact:
Oesterreichische Nationalbank
Press Office
E-mail: barrierefreiheit@oenb.at

Enforcement procedure

If you are not satisfied with how we respond to your messages or suggestions, you may address a complaint to the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) via its electronic contact form:

Contact form – digital accessibility complaints office (German only)

The FFG will examine complaints to determine if they relate to violations of the Web Accessibility Act, in particular to deficiencies in compliance with accessibility requirements by a federal government body or a public institution related to the federal government. If the complaint is justified, the FFG will make recommendations for action to the legal entities concerned and propose measures to eliminate the existing deficiencies.

Further information on the complaints procedure (German only)