Accessibility Statement

This statement applies was last updated on 24th February 2022.

COMPLIANCE STATUS

The Office is fully committed to making its online services accessible to all. We are dedicated to continuously improving accessibility of our services. This is being done by adopting best practices as communicated by stakeholders, such as FITA and other users.

NON-ACCESSIBLE CONTENT

We are not aware of specific inaccessible content or accessibility issues on our websites. Nonetheless, should you identify such content, we kindly ask you to let us know via the contact details provided below. Should such an instance arise our aim is to investigate the issue with a view to identify the accessibility issue and bring the affected area into compliance.

PREPARATION OF THIS ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT

This statement was prepared on 24th February 2022 and applies to the official Office’s websites.

Statement was last reviewed on 24th February 2022.

FEEDBACK AND CONTACT INFORMATION

Inevitably, it is not the case that we are always right as the more services and resources we place online, the more likely it may be to miss issues, nonetheless we remain committed to addressing any access issues in a promptly manner. Your assistance in this regard would be greatly appreciated. Should you experience any difficulties in accessing our websites or have trouble using any aspect of the website, we would like you to let us know.

Please feel free to contact us by email on websupport.justice@gov.mt or by submitting the Online Feedback Form. You can also reach out by phone on +356 2327 9610.

ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURE

The Malta Communications Authority (MCA) is the entity responsible for implementing Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on the websites’ accessibility and mobile applications of the public sector bodies. 

In case your ICT accessibility related query is not addressed or you wish to lodge a formal complaint, you can do so by contacting the MCA by filling the online complaint form directly on their website. In the case of continued non-compliance, the Malta Communications Authority adopts the enforcement procedure as per SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION 418.03.

COMPLIANCE PROCESS

Our websites are designed to work with the latest web browsers such as Edge, Safari, Firefox and Chrome browsers.

As part of this effort, we adhere to accessibility standard EN310549 and WCAG2.1 guidelines. Our online resources and forms are evaluated both manually and programmatically for conformance to WCAG 2.1 Level AA guidelines. Our websites are designed to work well and be accessible when being accessed with suitably updated hardware and software products.

Further recognizing that adherence to standards and guidelines, cannot on its own ensure that a product is accessible, we also carry out usability evaluations in collaboration with users, so as to gather necessary feedback. We also strive to implement accessibility for information channels that are provided via other platforms wherever possible, such as social media.

ACCESSIBILITY MEASURES

Our websites do not rely on font, magnification and colour modification widgets. This is because such functionalities are already integrated in most web browsers or are available via different add-ons and plugins which different users are free to customise to their needs. As a result, these arbitrary user customisations are available for most websites, not only that of our Office. In order to allow for this level of customisation, we seek to maximise compatibility with these user modifications.

As part of and in addition to the above-mentioned guidelines, our websites implement the following accessibility features:

1.        Maintain a consistent HTML Heading hierarchy and information layout across different web pages.

2.        Information content is organised into HTML lists wherever applicable.

3.        Mouse Pointer change icon when a link if hovered through Browser’s functionality.

4.        Add image title, alt tag and caption wherever this information is relevant and useful.

5.        Maximise colour contrast for text where applicable.

6.        Actual link text is descriptive enough to inform users where the link points to.

7.        Implement all external links so that they open into new browser tabs.

IMPORTANT LINKS