Czech Republic

Is there existing legislation in your country to encourage or ensure that websites, in particular government, public service or other sites providing widespread services of general use (such as hiring services, travel, telephony, energy, education, employment, leisure...) are accessible to visually impaired people? Please be sure to specify in your answer to which categories of site the regulation(s) apply.

Yes, in the Czech Republic there is an Act No. 365/2000 Coll., on information systems of the public administration and on change of certain other laws (hereafter shortened as “the Act”), further in detail elaborated in the Decree No 64/2008 Coll. on The Format of the Published Information related to the execution of the public administration through the webpages for disabled people (Decree on Accessibility) (hereafter „the Decree“).

Par 5 art. 2 char. f) of the Act sets out the requirement to make the information relating to public administration execution available in indispensable extent also to people with disability. The Act covers all public administration sites with only a few unimportant exceptions, on the other hand widespread public services or other sites are not covered at all. The Ministry of the Interior has been made responsible for compliance checking in par. 4 art. 2 in relation to par. 5c, where further steps are described should any incompliance arise.

What are the standards that are used in your country to measure website accessibility?

Blind Friendly Web as a de facto standard (http://blindfriendly.cz/, unfortunately Czech only), requirements set in the Amendment of the Decree as a de jure standard.

Is there an authority in place to establish, measure and control website accessibility?

Yes, see answer to Q1.

Is there a legal obligation to regularly review the accessibility of websites?

No, we are not aware of any such obligation. The Act just requires any public administration web to be accessible, and the Ministry to check it, but it says neither how often, nor till what time from the start or redesign of pages it should get reviewed.

If yes, at what intervals?

Is there an established timeframe for

1. new websites to be made accessible?
   if yes what is it ?
   i)+ii): we are not aware of any transient period. The act just requires web pages to be accessible. See answer to Q5
2. existing websites to be made accessible?
   if yes what is it ?

What sanctions are imposed by the law for websites which fail to comply with accessibility regulations?

We were unable to find out sanction for accessibility infringement; this does not necessarily mean there is no sanction at all, we are just not aware of it.

Is there a legal obligation to include awareness of accessibility issues in training provided to webmasters and related professions?

No obligation exists.

Is there a legal obligation on educational authorities to provide specific training on Web accessibility issues in related areas (such as engineering and computer sciences, telecommunications and networks courses, etc)?

No obligation exists.

Are there official guidelines in place to assist webmasters and technical staff in making their websites accessible?

Yes, a de facto standard, “Blind Friendly Web” provides guidelines to make the web accessible. The Decree Amendment may also be perceived as a kind of guidelines, as any website conforming to its rules is considered to be de jure accessible.

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