Accessibility calls for skills and tools
When a digital service meets the accessibility requirements, as many people as possible can use it easily. The requirements laid down in the Act on the Provision of Digital Services aim to give everyone equal access to the authorities’ services. Accessibility benefits everyone and is particularly important for people with disabilities and older people. The National Land Survey of Finland (NLS) addresses accessibility and the needs of various user groups in the communication, structure and technical implementation of its websites and other digital services.
In spring 2023, the NLS’s accessibility team conducted a personnel survey to identify how familiar employees are with the accessibility requirements and whether they can create accessible documents. Another aim was to identify whether instructions are sufficiently exhaustive and whether any training should be provided.
‘The majority of respondents required more information about accessibility and its implementation in practice. We will respond to these requests by acquiring a concrete video training package customised for NLS employees, which all our employees who publish documents in our digital services must complete,’ says Kristian Holmén, Chief Expert at the NLS.
During the next few months, the NLS will also host events for employees who have completed the training package to ask questions about accessibility from the instructor and members of the NLS’s accessibility team. We will also conduct another survey later to identify whether skills have increased and whether further training is required. In addition, we will identify whether the software we have is sufficient to ensure that documents are accessible.
The NLS’s goal is that every employee who creates documents in digital services has sufficient accessibility skills and that ensuring accessibility becomes a routine part of the creation of documents.
Data protection skills protect customers’ rights
Most statutory tasks of the NLS require the processing of personal data, and nearly all NLS employees work with personal data every day. The NLS has worked hard for several years now to ensure data protection. Currently, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) sets strict requirements for the collection, storage and management of personal data.
‘Customers must be able to trust that their personal data is protected against unauthorised access, any errors are corrected and the processing of personal data is otherwise appropriate. It is also important that customers are provided with instructions for exercising their rights under the GDPR,’ says Chief Expert Kristiina Virmajoki who works as the data protection officer at the NLS.
This year, all NLS employees must complete basic and advanced data protection training as an online course. The goal is that everyone knows the requirements set for the processing of personal data and can also act correctly and sufficiently quickly in the case of any data breaches. During the year, other training will also cover data protection. We will add a section related to each employee’s own tasks to general training.
‘Personal data can be processed correctly and advice and guidance can be provided appropriately when every employee has a recent knowledge of the basic concepts and principles of data protection,’ Virmajoki says.
Sustainability belongs to everyone
This year, each NLS team will, for the first time, be able to select an act of sustainability during their team’s outlook discussion. Teams have been encouraged to select an act of sustainability that improves team spirit and the common good, is concrete and looks like the team that selected it. The goal is to bring sustainability closer to everyone’s work and the workplace’s daily activities. The implementation of the acts will be discussed during the year’s performance appraisals.
The range of the selected acts of sustainability is broad. For example, some teams are committed to collecting rubbish and reporting observations of invasive alien species while carrying out fieldwork, some have decided to learn software development and testing principles in line with sustainable development, while some have saved electricity and paper and held events to increase the sense of community. Many teams have also decided to improve the flow of information or wellbeing at work.
‘Our teams have selected acts both large and small. What is important is to take action. Here at the NLS, we want to improve our sustainability, and we can only do this by working together,’ says Mirva Kipinoinen, Director of Communications and Sustainability at the NLS.
The most insightful act of sustainability was voted in September, with all NLS employees being able to give their vote to their favourite act. The winning team was committed to extending the lease of their telephones at the end of the agreement period. The team was given an immaterial prize: additional funds for their sports and culture or wellbeing benefit provided by the NLS as an employee benefit.
More information
Sustainability Specialist Annukka Kokkonen, 050 467 0911, firstname.lastname@nls.fi
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