• Introduction
• Intranet for all staff
• Setting up & maintaining a site
• Architecture
• Presentation
• Informatics technology
• Multilingualism
• Accessibility
• Interactivity
• Legal notice and notice on editorial policy
• Quality control
• Toolbox
• Updates
• IPG in PDF
• Annex 1- IntraComm transfers
• Annex 2 - Metadata
• Annex 3 - Privacy Statement

Rule 7 - Accessibility

1. Rule

The IntraComm site must be accessible for all Commission staff as well as for selected key partner groups.

2. Justification

IntraComm is first and foremost a working tool and an information channel for Commission staff in active service. This working tool is available for the entire staff whether working in their offices, from home or on mission. It must be available for staff in Commission workplaces throughout the Union and for staff in its delegations.

IntraComm should - as far as possible - also be accessible for staff with physical handicaps.

Most parts of IntraComm are also available to the staff of other EU institutions, agencies and bodies as well as to different groups of non-active Commission staff, i.e. retired officials, officials on leave, persons on a survivor's pension, etc.

3. Description

Three aspects of accessibility are dealt with here below:

• Access permissions, i.e. what should be accessible for whom
• Guidelines on accessibility for disabled users
• Use of meta data for search and retrieval of information on the site

Technical requirements for access are dealt with in chapter 5

3.1. Access permissions

3.1.1 Types of users - types of access

Synoptic view of "what should be accessible for whom". [19 KB]

The URL to use for access is different for different user groups - active Commission staff, pensioners and staff of other EU-institutions. An overview is given in chapter 1.

Staff accesses from home or on mission

The responsibility for instructing an official on how to connect to IntraComm from outside the EC premises rests with each local IRM. However, a guide on how to connect can be consulted on IntraComm.

Access from other EU Institutions/agencies/bodies

Any EU institution/agency/body wishing to access IntraComm must be integrated in the data transmission network, known by the acronym TESTA II. This is a European secure network, and part of the EU financed project on the "Interchange of Data between Administrations".
Most EU Institutions [11 KB] and agencies [14 KB] are connected to TESTA II, and their staff will therefore have access to the IntraComm site.

3.1.2 Password protected sub-sites

For staff accessing IntraComm from their place of work, information on IntraComm is normally made available without the request of login and password. However, login and password protected areas can be created if an information provider wants to publish information with access only for a restricted group of Commission staff. Request for such a protected area must be send to the IntraComm Team through the Webmaster of your DG.

3.1.3 Access for Commission staff only

Information providers might, for reasons of confidentiality, copyright issues or other imperative reasons, want to prohibit access to certain directories on their sub-site by users outside the Commission i.e. other EU Institutions, agencies or bodies. This can be done by including an /i/ in the URL/pathname.

Example: http://www.cc.cec/home/dgserv/sg/i/college/index.cfm

Attempted unauthorised access will generate the following message:

The page you are trying to access has been classified as "For Internal Use Only". This means that only Commission staff in active service are allowed to view this page.
A small number of pages on the Intranet of the Commission are restricted for Internal Use Only. This is due either to rules on copyright or because of the sensitivity of the information contained in these pages.
We regret any inconvenience this denial of access may cause to you and hope that you still find useful and satisfactory the considerable amount of information available to you.

3.1.4 Personalised access - your IntraComm profile

Demand for a more personalised access to IntraComm information requires the user to identify himself when accessing IntraComm for the first time or when changing profile information. The introduction of such identification serves the sole purpose of offering personalised information, eg. information specific for the user's domain of work (access to specific work tools) or place of work (access to local intranet).

3.2. Accessibility for disabled users

The Commission has committed itself to the application of the guidelines on WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative), priority level 1 for both the Europa Server and for its Intranet IntraComm.

The purpose of implementing the WAI guidelines is to make it possible for staff with physical handicaps - such as visually impaired staff - to exploit the information published on IntraComm.

Detailed description of the WAI guidelines can be found in the Europa IPG, chapter 7

Courses in WAI may soon be offered to webmasters and other interested staff

Applying the WAI guidelines is not only required, but it makes good sense. Many of the measures prescribed to improve accessibility for disabled people equally improve accessibility for non-disabled people.

3.3. Use of metadata

3.3.1 Why metadata

Metadata is data that describes the content of a web document. It is essential for the management of web content. Combined with controlled subject indexes, it equally allows the web user to search thematicly for information on the intranet.

Developing a web site without metadata is like having a library without an index system.

Metadata provides information for:

• Specification of the character set to be used.
• Identifying a document formally (title, reference, format, language, etc.)
• Identifying who is responsible for a document (author, publisher, e-mail address)
• Management and administration purposes (expiry date, relations to other documents, etc.)
• Identifying the content of a document (subject classification, document type, description, etc.)

3.3.2 Metadata on IntraComm

IntraComm uses the metatags defined by the Dublin Core Working Group and endorsed by the W3 consortium. However, only a subset of the tags - those defined below - are mandatory. For the full list of Dublin Core metadata, see " Dublin Metadata Core Element Set".

Besides this compulsory metadata, the information provider may introduce other metadata considered necessary for management purposes (e.g. "DateAlarm", "WritePermission", "Version"). However, it is forbidden to include in the metadata any information relating to the firms involved in designing, producing and updating web pages for IntraComm.

PDF and Word documents must equally be tagged by filling in the "properties"-form (under 'File' > 'Properties') for each document. For the relevant HTML metatags the equivalent tags in PDF and Word are listed in the Annex 2

To generate metadata, and particularly to find the right subject classification code(s) and the right "type" code, a metabuilding tool has been developed for use on both IntraComm and Europa. This Metabuilder is developed to help the webmaster generate metatags in the transitional period until a similar tool integrated in the Web Content Management System becomes available

3.3.3 Compulsory metadata

On IntraComm, 7 meta tags are compulsory:

"Title", "Author/Creator", "Type", "Classification", "Description", "Date", and "Language"

It should be noted, that compared with the compulsory metatags on Europa, IntraComm do not exact the presence of metadata "Reference" and "Keywords". However, the metadata "Date" is compulsory, which is not the case on Europa.

Instructions for inserting metadata is enclosed as Annex 2.