Digital citizen participation: Create accessible citizen surveys

Accessibility should now be standard in digital citizen participation. Whether it takes the form of an online citizen survey, a citizen participation portal or an e-participation app, digital participation must take accessibility into account if it is to enable genuine digital inclusion. LamaPoll supports digital citizen participation through accessible online citizen surveys. Below, we explain how to create accessible citizen surveys and what to consider when implementing them. Use our guidance and practical tips when designing your accessible online survey.

Why are accessible citizen surveys important?

Online citizen surveys are a form of digital citizen participation. They enable citizens to take an active part in decision-making while saving time, costs and resources. Citizen surveys should be accessible, meaning that everyone can use them, including people with disabilities or impairments. Public-sector bodies such as cities and local authorities often initiate citizen surveys and must ensure that these services are accessible. Under Directive (EU) 2016/2102, public-sector websites have been required to be accessible since September 2020, and mobile apps since June 2021. This includes the documents, forms and online surveys provided through them. The benchmark is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) at Level AA, referenced through the European standard EN 301 549. Each EU member state has transposed the directive into national law; in Germany, for example, through the Disability Equality Act (BGG) and the BITV 2.0 ordinance.

Making wide-ranging citizen surveys accessible is also essential for social inclusion. In line with the principle of inclusion, everyone should be able to participate, with or without a disability. If an online citizen survey concerns the future development of a municipality or city, for example with a focus on mobility or housing needs, all residents should be able to help shape and support those decisions. This includes residents with physical disabilities or impairments. Accessible online services and surveys are therefore needed: they must be compatible with assistive technologies such as screen readers and account for different disabilities and impairments from the outset.

LamaPoll makes it easy to create accessible online citizen surveys. We follow WCAG and meet the relevant technical requirements. As a public-sector organisation, you can control many of the remaining accessibility aspects when designing your survey.

Create an accessible online citizen survey with LamaPoll

LamaPoll lets you create accessible online citizen surveys in accordance with WCAG. Our survey tool meets the core technical requirements for accessible surveys, particularly keyboard-only operation and compatibility with screen readers. Survey creators can also use numerous features and settings to help make a citizen survey WCAG-compliant. You will find practical tips and guidance further down this page.

A wide range of features and survey formats is available for online citizen surveys. These provide participation options that are commonly used and tested in digital participation portals. An online citizen survey created with LamaPoll can therefore combine several forms of digital citizen participation in an accessible format. Consider using the following features in your online citizen survey project.

Features for your online citizen survey:

• Free-text and comment fields where citizens can comment on proposals, ideas and suggestions, submit complaints or report problems
• File-upload questions (available from the Platinum plan) that allow participants to submit documents, such as proposals for ideas competitions
• Question types such as ranking questions and survey settings for prioritising policy areas
• Links to documents, for example a list of planned projects
• Live results that show citizens' views in real time
• Online votes and elections

Tip: LamaPoll makes it quick and easy to embed your online citizen survey into your own website using an iframe, so the complete survey appears directly on your site. Our Help Centre explains how: Embed a survey on your website.

When you create an online citizen survey with LamaPoll, you can rely on strong digital accessibility, data protection and data security. Find out more about this important aspect of online citizen surveys: Security and protection for your online survey data.

Create an accessible citizen survey

Create an accessible citizen survey: tips and guidance

When using LamaPoll to create an accessible online citizen survey, survey creators should consider several aspects of the questionnaire's content and design. For wide-ranging citizen surveys that combine informative, evaluative and interactive elements, consider providing different versions of the questionnaire for participants with visual or hearing impairments or limited literacy. Participants should also be able to pause the survey and continue later, giving them enough time to complete more extensive surveys. The following practical tips can help you create an accessible online citizen survey.

Tips and guidance for your accessible citizen survey:

• Provide different versions of the questionnaire tailored to different disabilities and impairments, for example one version for participants with limited literacy and another for citizens with visual or hearing impairments.
• Avoid complex matrix questions in questionnaire versions designed for participants with disabilities, as screen readers can struggle to interpret them.
• Give citizens enough time to respond by allowing them to pause the survey and continue later.
• Add alt text to all images and logos, and provide captions or a transcript for videos, so that assistive technologies can convey the content.
• Label all free-text and comment fields clearly so that citizens know what they should comment on and where and how to enter their response.
• Use meaningful link text for links to information documents, such as lists of planned projects, and to external websites.
• Keep it short and clear: use short sentences, avoid jargon and, for longer texts, show one question per page.
• Test the survey before launch using only a keyboard and a screen reader. Our guide to web accessibility self-tests and tools shows you how.
• Offer a second way to take part, such as a paper questionnaire or a telephone option, so that citizens without internet access can also participate.

We also recommend our checklist for creating accessible surveys and the Help Centre guide Creating accessible surveys, which cover further factors relevant to accessible citizen surveys.