Accessibility statement – the Import Declaration Service for private persons

Finnish Customs is committed to making its websites and online services accessible in accordance with the Act on the Provision of Digital Services (306/2019).

This accessibility statement concerns the Import Declaration Service for private persons.

Other service alternatives

If you are not able to use the Import Declaration Service for private persons, you can declare your goods in alternative ways. You can authorise another person to declare the goods on your behalf via the service or you can buy the declaration as a service from a forwarding company.

You can also personally visit a customs office that provides customer service to give us your feedback. On the Customs website, you will find the map locations of these customs offices and their opening hours.

Help regarding other service alternatives is available from the Customs Information Service; tel. 0295 5201.

See the instructions for other service alternatives.

The accessibility of the service

The current accessibility of the content of the service:

The Import Declaration Service for private persons partly meets the requirements laid down in the Finnish Act on the Provision of Digital Services.

The known problems with accessibility

The service still has some usability problems. The recognised problems with accessibility are described below. If you notice a problem in the service that is not included in the list, please contact us.  

The following content does not meet the requirements laid down in the Act on the Provision of Digital Services and will be fixed as soon as possible:

  • Mobile menu
    • The screen reader does not receive any information on whether the menu is open or closed.
    • WCAG 4.1.2
  • The contrasts are not sufficient regarding the following:
    • the edges of input fields
    • light grey texts against dark grey and light background
    • white text on a red button
    • orange buttons of the instruction side navigation against light background
    • the yellow headings of the footer.
    • WCAG 1.4.3, 1.4.11
  • Combinations of form fields
    • The form field pairs for providing sum and currency in the “Goods details” step have not been programmatically connected to each other.
    • Some of the groups of boxes and buttons have been programmatically connected to each other in the wrong way.
    • Some of the form fields do not have name tags, or the instructions have not been programmatically linked to them.
    • WCAG 1.3.1, 3.3.2
  • HTML heading levels
    • On some pages, the different HTML heading levels are not used systematically.
    • On some pages of the form (for example the summary), the text has been wrongly marked as text on HTML heading level.
    • WCAG 1.3.1
  • The decision documents in pdf format created by the system are not accessible.
    • WCAG 1.1.1., 1.3.1, 1.3.2
  • Connection timeout
    • The user is warned of the connection timeout and is given the opportunity to request additional time. However, for data security reasons the user is logged out after 12 hours, which means that the accessibility requirements concerning time limits are not completely fulfilled.
    • WCAG 2.2.1
  • Side navigation
    • The side navigations are link lists, but they have not been programmatically determined as side navigations.
    • The screen reader doesn’t receive any information on which stage of the side navigation has been chosen.
    • WCAG 1.3.1, 2.4.4, 4.1.2
  • The mandatory fields have not been determined, because all fields are mandatory in principle.
    • WCAG 3.3.2.
  • Error messages and feedback
    • The error and feedback messages appearing at the top of the pages disappear in 20 seconds, and the display time cannot be extended.
    • The service contains some single dynamic feedback messages that are not transmitted to the screen reader.
    • Some single error messages for the fields have not been programmatically linked to the fields.
    • WCAG 2.2.1, 3.3.1, 4.1.3
  • Modal dialogues
    • Focus is moved to the frame of the component and not to the elements in the component, and due to this some screen readers may not read the dialogue.
    • The modal dialogues have not been given the correct headings programmatically, and they may also contain other attribute errors, which may confuse screen readers.
    • WCAG 2.4.3, 4.1.2
  • Accordion elements
    • The accordion elements have been marked programmatically correctly, but in some situations the focus jumps away from them when they are opened or closed, which leaves their status unclear.
    • WCAG 2.4.3, 4.1.2
  • Unexpected changes in context
    • If the user changes the value of the ”I wish to declare” drop-down menu using either the arrow keys or by selecting a new value from the menu, a new modal window appears on the screen and keyboard focus moves to this window.
    • When the user changes the selection in the ”Country of dispatch” drop-down menu for the first time, keyboard focus suddenly moves away from the drop-down menu.
    • WCAG 3.3.2
  • Messages sent by the customs clearance team
    • The accordion elements used in the messages don’t tell the screen reader whether the element is open or closed. (WCAG 4.1.2)
    • The keyboard focus does not stay in the element. (WCAG 2.4.3)
    • The keyboard focus does not stay in the dialog. (WCAG 2.4.3)
    • The user may unnecessarily aim a keyboard command at the dark background of the element. The screen reader doesn’t receive any information on the purpose of the element. (WCAG 2.4.3)
    • In mobile size, the element covers the “Next” button. (WCAG 1.4.10)
  • Requesting preferential treatment for the goods 
    • In the Summary step, a list of checkboxes is displayed showing goods that preferential treatment can be applied for. The labels of these checkboxes have been programmatically connected in the wrong way. In addition, the status of the checkboxes is not conveyed, because the keyboard focus moves away from the checkboxes when you click on them.
    • WCAG  1.3.1, 3.2.2, 4.1.2

Customer experience questionnaire

The customer experience questionnaire is answered in a separate Webropol form after logging out from the service.  The observations below concern this form. The pages have been assessed by an external party (Eficode, 4/2020) that has not been involved in the design or development of the pages.

  • Radio buttons for the question “How satisfied are you with the services you used?” 
  • The radio buttons for each evaluation number give the faulty information ”1/1” to the screen reader, when they should be indicating which evaluation number out of how many alternatives is in question. This makes it more difficult to choose the right number when using a screen reader. In the beginning of the questionnaire, there is information stating that the assessment scale ranges from 1 to 5.
  • The radio buttons are placed on the side in a table, and the settings of the table are read by the screen readerunnecessarily.This may be cause problems for screen reader users.
  • In the section “Was there anything particularly good about our performance?”, the selected elements cause the screen readers to read the headings twice.   
  • It is not possible to return to the last page of the questionnaire by using the browser’s back button.
  • The buttons Next, Previous and Send tell the screen reader that they are buttons, although they are links. For a screen reader user, this faulty information may cause problems choosing the right button.
  • All questionnaires created with Webropol have the automatic heading ”Questionnaire created with Webropol”; Customs cannot change this. Thus, based on the heading, it is impossible to separate this questionnaire from other questionnaires or feedback forms created by Customs. The user must check the form to find out the right heading of the questionnaire.

Drafting of the statement

  • Customs has assessed the accessibility of this service as follows:
  • The assessment was conducted by an external operator.
  • The service was assessed in 4/2019.
  • This statement was drafted on 5 February 2020.The statement was last reviewed on 30 April 2021.

Feedback

We are happy to receive feedback on the accessibility of this service.

  • Give feedback on accessibility to Customs by email: asiakaspalautteet(at)tulli.fi.
  • Customs’ e-services are responsible for the accessibility of the Import Declaration Service for private persons and will also respond to feedback on accessibility.
  • We aim to respond to feedback within five working days.
  • If you are not satisfied with the response you have received from Customs, you can also give feedback on accessibility to the Regional State Administrative Agencies: saavutettavuus(at)avi.fi.