Care and personal assistance
The DOS Act for care and personal assistance – what applies to you?
Private health care, social care and personal assistance providers that are publicly funded in any part are covered by the DOS Act, the Swedish Act on accessibility to digital public services (SFS 2018:1937). That includes, for example, LSS group homes, home care and assistance paid through assistance allowance. Digg supervises.
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Examples of care customers using Selma
The law
Are you covered by the DOS Act?
The DOS Act applies to public actors, and counts among them private businesses that professionally provide care or assistance that is publicly funded in any part. The DOS Act is the law that applies to you, not the Accessibility Act (EAA).
- 1
Who is covered
Private providers of health care, dental care, social services, LSS services and personal assistance paid through assistance allowance, if the business is publicly funded in any part. There is no minimum amount of funding.
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What is required
That websites, apps and documents can be perceived, operated and understood, also with assistive technology, and that you publish an accessibility statement. The requirements are measured against EN 301 549, the standard built on WCAG 2.1 level AA.
- 3
What happens otherwise
Anyone can report issues to Digg. Digg first tries to get you to fix them, and can then order you to fix the issues, with a fine if needed.
How Selma helps
How Selma helps care and personal assistance providers
See where you stand today
Start with the pages that service users, relatives and applicants use most: contact, vacancies, applications and job ads. Selma Scanning tests one page at a time against WCAG 2.1 AA and shows what to fix first.
Read about Selma Scanning
Write an accessibility statement that is accurate
The statement has to say which parts fall short. Selma Services carries out a manual review and helps you describe the issues and how you will fix them.
Read about Selma Services
Keep your domain accessible over time
New pages, news and documents bring new issues. Selma Bevakning reviews your whole domain every week against WCAG 2.2 AA, and whoever runs your website gets a code fix for every issue.
Read about Selma Bevakning
Common questions about the DOS Act for care and personal assistance
- Are private personal assistance and care companies covered by the DOS Act?
- Yes, if the business is publicly funded in any part. The DOS Act (SFS 2018:1937) counts private businesses that professionally provide health care, dental care, social services, LSS services or personal assistance paid through assistance allowance as public actors.
- How much public funding does it take for the DOS Act to apply?
- There is no minimum. The act applies to private actors whose business is publicly funded in any part, for example through assistance allowance or payments from a municipality or region. According to Digg, the starting point is that all such actors are covered.
- Does the Accessibility Act (EAA) apply to care providers?
- No. The Swedish Accessibility Act (LPTT) covers certain consumer services, such as e-commerce and banking. For care and assistance that is publicly funded in any part, the DOS Act applies. If you also sell goods or services to consumers online, the Accessibility Act can apply to that part.
- Do we need an accessibility statement?
- Yes. The DOS Act requires an accessibility statement for your digital service. Among other things, it has to say whether the website fully, partly or does not meet the requirements, which parts are not accessible and how visitors can report issues.
- What does the DOS Act require of our website?
- Websites, apps and documents must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. In practice this is measured against EN 301 549, the standard built on WCAG 2.1 level AA. Requirements that would be an unreasonable burden can be exempted, but the accessibility statement must then say so.
- What happens if we do not comply with the DOS Act?
- Digg supervises, and anyone can report issues to Digg. Digg first tries to get you to fix them. If that fails, Digg can order you to fix them, and a new order can come with a fine. The DOS Act has no administrative penalty fee.
- Can an accessibility widget help us?
- Yes, it can make things much easier for visitors. Selma Widget lets them adjust text, contrast and motion to their needs, and automatically fixes some issues right in the visitor's browser: it improves focus and keyboard navigation, adds information that screen readers need and gives images without alternative text a description. It does not necessarily take you all the way. Issues in the source code and in documents such as PDFs have to be fixed where they are, and the widget does not replace the accessibility statement.
See how your domain holds up
Test your domain for free and get a report straight to your inbox. Or book a meeting and we will go through what the DOS Act means for your business.