Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement for the Office of the Arbiter for Financial Services (OAFS) Website

This statement applies to the official website of the OAFS website www.financialarbiter.org.mt and www.arbitrufinanzjarju.org.mt.

Both links direct users to the same website, which by default brings up the English version of the website. The user may switch between the Maltese and English version of the website by clicking on language option on the top bar.

The OAFS is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. We are continually improving the user experience for everyone and applying the relevant accessibility standards.

Measures to support accessibility

The OAFS takes the following measures throughout the organisation to ensure accessibility of its website:

• Includes accessibility through its internal policies.
• Has an accessibility officer.
• Assigns clear accessibility targets and responsibilities.
• Employs formal accessibility assurance methods.

Conformity status

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) defines requirements for website designers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. The OAFS website is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA which maps to EN 301 549 as per the European Web Accessibility Directive. Partially conformant means that some parts of the content may not yet fully conform to the accessibility standard.

Compatibility with browsers and assistive technology

The OAFS website is designed to be compatible with a wide range of standard and updated web browsers, such as those based on Chromium and open-source technology (such as Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Brave and Firefox). It has also been designed to work across a range of popular platforms and devices.

Users are strongly advised to update their preferred browsers for optimal functionality of the website.

Technical specifications and accessibility measures used

Accessibility of the OAFS website relies on HTML technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plugins installed on your computer.

This technology is relied upon for conformance with the accessibility standards used.

The OAFS website implements the following accessibility features:

• Maintain a consistent HTML Heading hierarchy and information layout across different web pages.
• Add image title, alt tag and caption wherever this information is relevant and useful.
• Maximise colour contrast for text where applicable.
• Actual link text is descriptive enough to inform user where the link points to.
• Implement all external links so that they open into new browser tabs.
• Implement captioning in as much multimedia content as possible.

Feedback

Together with our IT partners, we strive to ensure that our website is easily accessible to all users with minimal technical disruptions. Your feedback on the accessibility of our website is thus important for us.

If you encounter accessibility barriers while visiting our website, please get in touch as follows:

• Phone: +356 21249245
• WhatsApp: +356 7921 9961
• E-mail: complaint.info@financialarbiter.org.mt
• Postal address: 1st Floor, St Calcedonius Square, Floriana FRN 1530 Malta
• Online feedback from: https://arbitrufinanzjarju.org.mt/oafs/enquiry

We aim to respond to feedback within 2 business days, but some issues may take longer to be resolved if third party suppliers are involved.

Limitations and alternatives

The following limitations are observed at present:

• Some hyperlinks on the website may be identifiable only by colour.
• Some PDF documents may lack the proper formatting for use by accessibility technologies.

The OAFS has implemented a continuous improvement programme to rectify the above. However despite our best efforts to ensure accessibility of the OAFS website, there may be some limitations which may have gone unnoticed or are planned to be made accessible soon. Please contact us if you observe such issues on our website (see details above).

Formal complaints

We aim to respond to accessibility feedback within 2 business days, and to propose a solution within 10 business days.

If you are not happy with our response or the way we have handled your enquiry, you are entitled to escalate a complaint to the Malta Communications Authority (MCA).

The MCA is the entity responsible for implementing Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on the accessibility of websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies.  You may contact the MCA on +356 21336840 or by filling their online complaint form at https://mca.org.mt/consumer/forms/complaints.

Formal approval of this accessibility statement

This accessibility statement has been approved by Geoffrey Bezzina, chair of the Board of Management and Administration at the OAFS.

Modification History