Accessibility of administrative services

Accessibility plan

In this plan we describe how administrative services are provided accessibly at HAMK.

Accessibility involves taking differences between people and their diversity into account in the design and implementation of online services. In administrative services, accessibility means making the use of online and other services easy for as many users as possible who receive, assimilate and structure information in different ways. 

The shared services units – such as HR Services, general administration, Financial Services or the Project Support Team – provide various development, maintenance, reporting and support services associated with the organisation’s administration. In practice, these services comprise practical transactions and communication in different information systems and other channels, or offer of data, reports or statistics on activities.

The accessibility of the information and service systems in use has been determined and described as part of HAMK’s information system portfolio. The goal is to increase the level of accessibility in all software packages and functions. When updating or procuring systems, accessibility is addressed as a basic premise. 

In keeping with its policy, HAMK communicates both in Finnish and English to the appropriate extent. In all communication, HAMK strives to pay attention to making the content as clear and understandable as possible and ensuring customer-oriented communication. Personnel instructions are gathered on the intranet, which is technically accessible on Microsoft’s Sharepoint platform. The main method of presenting information is through text and images, either as intranet pages or attachment files. Content accessibility applies not only to technical accessibility, which serves screen readers and search engines, but also to the appearance of implementations to the human eye. This concept should also cover the accessibility of content; in other words, content should be clear, comprehensible and usable.

Accessible Office templates are used to produce new documents and update existing content. Achieved accessibility is monitored by means of feedback and personal observations.

HR Services

HR Services is responsible for diverse HR functions that support the organisation’s strategy and personnel well-being. Its key tasks include managing recruitment processes, preparing employment contracts and payroll administration. The unit also produces statistical data for the authorities and HR figures for HAMK’s needs as well as ensures that the data are machine readable and transferable between systems.

Competence development is an important part of HR Services’ work. HAMK 100 programme offers the personnel training in which technical accessibility and accessible location are addressed. Producing accessible materials is stressed in contents, and following the Universal Design principles is underlined in the planning of teaching.

HR Services is also responsible for organising the annual personnel day events. Accessibility is kept in mind when selecting the venue, the programme is interpreted into Finnish and English, and at least one English-speaking group is set up when working in small groups. In virtual implementations, accessibility is addressed as far as possible.

General administration

The Registry Office receives and processes official e-mails and documents. A case management system is in use. Documents leaving the Registry Office are produced and sent electronically or by post. The document templates for outgoing documents are accessible.  The Registry Office also receives requests for information, which are responded to in an accessible format. All e-mail communication of the administrative services is accessible. Administration Services produces agendas and minutes for the HAMK Group’s bodies. The templates for the agendas and minutes are accessible. Administration Services is also responsible for the accessibility of decision templates intended for office holders. The accessibility of agendas, minutes and decisions to be published has been ensured.

Financial and Project Services

The documents produced by Financial Services include an operating and financial plan as well as the annual report and financial statements. Particular attention has been paid to the accessibility of these documents in terms of not only the structure of their contents but also diagrams and tables.

The data production team mines data concerning HAMK’s operation and results, combines data from different sources, and puts together visualised reports to support users’ decision-making. The objective is to provide end-users with as seamless a user experience as possible without unnecessary steps or additional software. Power BI reports embedded in different services may not be fully accessible, and in this respect, HAMK depends on Microsoft’s development efforts. Accessibility is taken into account in report visualisation, for example in layout designs and colour selections.

Project Services liaises between external funding providers and HAMK’s Research Units. It produces user-oriented content, including by compiling and summing up external datasets and information about funding mechanisms.

Accessibility is addressed in procurements when determining the minimum requirements for the goods and services to be purchased. In case of new information systems, compliance with certain accessibility criteria is a requirement from the invitation to tender stage on. In machinery and equipment procurements, their ease of use as well as the existence and accessibility of the necessary instructions are considered.

Accessibility is ensured when drawing up documents for a tendering process. The tender system automatically ensures that the documents it generates (incl. invitations to tender, comparison tables) are accessible. Accessibility is also considered in other tendering documents, such as appendices to the invitation to tender, the procurement decision and contracts.

Objectives in 2026–2027

The persons who produce Office files for the personnel or distribute them publicly will be identified among all administrative personnel. They will learn how to create accessible Word and PowerPoint files. As the contents of existing guidelines and other instructions are updated, their accessibility will be checked, and the necessary corrections will be made.

Instructions for creating accessible Word documents produced as a student thesis will be introduced, ensuring that accessible Word and PowerPoint templates compliant with the document standard are used across HAMK. New guidelines and work instructions must be accessible.

As the intranet is upgraded, the accessibility of all content produced by the administration will be assessed, and based on the results, a plan for updating PDF files that can be converted into html pages will be drawn up. The availability of an ALT text or verbal description for information presented as images, diagrams or graphs will be ensured.

Content comprehensibility: The personnel in Shared Services units will familiarise themselves with the comprehensibility of language and deploy a plain language agent.

Data production:

• The set of reports will be clarified. Copilot will be deployed to support end-users’ information searches and to produce content analyses of the data.

Financial Services:

• The personnel will learn to produce accessible Excel tables and embed them in other Office files.

General administration:

• If necessary, capabilities for checking and fixing the accessibility of PDF documents will be procured (Adobe Acrobat).

Quality and risk management:

• In connection with the content update, it will be ensured that the guidelines are accessible, consistent with the brand and compliant with the document standard.
• All outdated guidelines that do not come up in search results will be removed from the Intranet and file library.