Accessibility
On this page, you can find information about access to Toompea Castle, and using the Riigikogu website.
Access to Toompea Castle
Toompea Castle is accessible to visitors with mobility disabilities. All major rooms – the visitors’ gallery of the Session Hall, the Conference Hall of the Riigikogu, the White Hall and most of the working rooms – are wheelchair accessible. However, not all working rooms are accessible to visitors with mobility disabilities. When planning a visit, please consult the person who invited you about accessibility, or write to [email protected].
Visiting the Riigikogu
The left entrance of Toompea Castle is accessible by a ramp without steps. Next to the door, at the wheelchair level, there is a doorphone through which the reception desk can be contacted. An employee of the Riigikogu Chancellery will be called to receive the guest with mobility disability and accompany them to the building. All visitors of the Riigikogu are always accompanied by an official of the Chancellery in the Riigikogu buildings. Toompea Castle can be entered on wheelchair through the car gate.
If a guest with mobility disability arrives by a taxi, the taxi can stop at the lay-by next to the entrance of the parking lot, and the guest has to reach the entrance of the Riigikogu by themselves. Guests with mobility disabilities arriving by car have to apply for a parking permit first, like all other visitors. The car park workers allow to park the car on the parking lot after a permit has been issued.
Toompea Castle has a WC and two lifts accessible for disabled persons, and two platform elevators for moving between different parts of the building complex.
Accessibility notice of the Riigikogu home page
This website is owned by the Chancellery of the Riigikogu. We want www.riigikogu.ee to be in compliance with the accessibility requirements established under Section 32 of the Public Information Act.
At the end of this notice, you will find contact details you can turn to if you experience problems with the accessibility of the website.
Compliance status
This website is partially compliant with accessibility requirements for the reasons listed below.
Non-accessible content and features
The content and functions listed below are not in compliance with the requirements of standard EN 301 549.
For decorative images, screen readers read out alternative texts.
In the “Riigikogu” submenu, an image has been given the alternative text alt=”14632″. The alternative text is not informative. In addition, this is a decorative image, and it should therefore be hidden from screen readers.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.1.1.1.
Video on a sub-page lacks synchronised captions for people with hearing deficiencies, and audio description or descriptive narration for visually impaired persons.
No captions and no descriptive narration or audio descriptions have been added to the video on the sub-page “Collective proposal”.
On the “Live broadcasts” sub-page, when the video is started, the texts “Riigikogu text TV” and “The next regular sitting of the Riigikogu will take place on 8 September 2025 at 15.00” are displayed. No audio description has been added to this video.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirements 9.1.2.2 and 9.1.2.3.
The videos on the sub-pages do not have audio descriptions.
The videos on sub-pages “Collective proposal” and “Positions and traineeships” do not have audio descriptions.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.1.2.5.
Using the screen reader, it is not possible to determine which parliamentary group the members in the seating plan belong to, and the heading structure is not logical.
On the seating plan, it is not possible to determine with a screen reader which parliamentary group the members belong to.
On the home page, there is no first-level heading element (H1).
On sub-pages, the breadcrumb <nav> region has been given the aria-label=”Breadcrumb menu”, but the aria-label has not been translated.
On the “Contacts” sub-page, the text “Riigikogu” looks like a heading, but it is not marked as a heading element in the code.
On the “Plenary hall live broadcast” sub-page, there is a second-level heading element (H2). The next heading “See who will speak next!” is a fourth-level heading element (H4). The third-level heading element (H3) is skipped.
The 404 sub-page has two first-level heading elements (H1).
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.1.3.1.
The input fields collecting information about the user do not have automatic filling attributes.
The input fields collecting information about the user do not have attributes that would enable the input fields to be filled automatically on the basis of previously recorded data.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.1.3.5.
Some links are distinguished from body text by colour alone and the contrast ratio does not meet the requirements.
In the seating plan in the hall, parliamentary groups are distinguished only by colour. Two parliamentary groups are additionally distinguished with a dashed border, but these two are still distinguished from each other only by colour.
On the “Opinions” section of the “Bills” sub-pages, links are, in the mobile view, distinguished from the body text only by colour.
On the “Work schedule of the Riigikogu” chart on the “Live broadcasts” sub-page, for example, “Foreign Affairs Committee work” and “European Union Affairs Committee work” are distinguished only by colour.
On the “Parliamentary groups” sub-page of the “Riigikogu” section, the parliamentary groups on the chart are distinguished only by colour.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.1.4.1.
The colour of the text and its background are not sufficiently different to meet the minimum contrast requirements.
In the cookies modal (opens when clicking the “Settings” button on the cookies notice), in the “Required cookies” tab, the text “Allowed” is not sufficiently contrasting.
When the “cookie settings” link on the cookies notice receives focus, it is not sufficiently contrasting.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.1.4.3.
When zooming in, horizontal scrolling appears on some pages and information is lost.
On certain screen sizes, zooming in causes a horizontal scrolling bar to appear, resulting in two-directional scrolling, or some of the information becomes only partially visible when the page is zoomed in.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.1.4.10.
The contrast between the colour of some user interface or graphic elements and their background does not meet the minimum requirements.
In the mobile view, the sharing icon is not sufficiently contrasting.
The borders of the form input fields are not sufficiently contrasting.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.1.4.11.
Increasing the text spacing will lose some information.
Increasing the text spacing will cause the menu item “Riigikogu” and the language selection in the header to become partially hidden behind the coat of arms on some devices.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.1.4.12.
The contents of the menu cannot be closed without moving the cursor or focus.
Menu items can be opened by hovering the mouse over them or by the keyboard focus, but cannot be closed by pressing the ESC key.
On the “Visit us” sub-page, when hovering the mouse over the boxes under the heading “Visit us”, an introductory text opens. These texts cannot be closed with the ESC key.
On the “Parliamentary groups” sub-page of the “Riigikogu” section, when hovering over the chart with the mouse, a tooltip with information about the group opens. The tooltip cannot be closed with the ESC key.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.1.4.13.
All functions of the website are not keyboard operable.
On the sub-page “Collective proposals submitted to the Riigikogu”, it is not possible to move to input fields “Composition of the Riigikogu”, “Lead committee” and “Stage of proceedings” with the keyboard. On the sub-page “Document register”, the calendars of the input fields “From” and “To” cannot be used with the keyboard.
On the “Visit us” sub-page, when hovering the mouse over the boxes under the “Visit us” heading, an introductory text opens. When navigating with the keyboard, it is not possible to open/see these texts.
On the “Parliamentary groups” sub-page of the “Riigikogu” section, when hovering over the chart with the mouse, a tooltip with information about the group opens. It is not possible to move focus to the chart with the keyboard.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.2.1.1.
The title of a sub-page does not describe the topic or purpose of the sub-page.
The titles of the “Bills” sub-pages, “Bill – Riigikogu”, do not describe which bill is being viewed.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.2.4.2.
In places, the focus order of user interface elements is not logical and intuitive.
In the header, the focus moves in illogical order after the coat of arms: Search box -> search button -> social media channels (from left to right) -> “Accessibility” -> “Contacts” -> “Sitemap” -> Language menu. The focus will move to the cookies notice only after the footer.
After opening of the feedback modal, the keyboard focus will move on under the modal. After the modal button “x”, the focus will move back under the modal.
On the 404 page, the focus moves to the “Feedback” button immediately after the menu, i.e. before the content part.
In the header, the screen reader focus moves in illogical order: Skip link >> logo >> search >> social media links >> header links >> language selection >> menu. The logical order would be from left to right, i.e.: Skip link >> coat of arms >> language selection >> header links >> social media links >> search >> menu.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.2.4.3.
The purpose of some links cannot be determined from the link text alone or from the link text together with its surrounding context read out by the screen reader.
There are repeated links on the home page. The images and titles in the news section are different elements of a link although both refer to the same page. The sub-page “Collective proposal” has repeated links. The images and titles on the sub-page “Collective proposals submitted to the Riigikogu” are different elements of a link although both refer to the same page.
On the detailed view of a bill, there are several links with the same name (“Protocol asice”, “Substitute member’s letter of authorisation”, etc.) that are not given a description in the code. A screen reader reads them out, for example, as “link, Protocol asice”, which does not make it clear which protocol is being referred to.
On the “Visit us” sub-page, there are five “Read more” links that are not associated in the code with the respective headings. Screen readers read them out as “link, Read more”, which does not make it clear what you can read more about.
On the “Live broadcasts” sub-page, there are repeated links. For the links under the live stream video, a screen reader first reads out the video as “link, See who will speak next!” and then the heading itself as “link, heading level 4, See who will speak next!”. Both links take the user to the same place.
On the “Board of the Riigikogu” sub-page, the links under the heading are repeated. The screen reader reads out the image, for example, as “link, image, Lauri Hussar”. The “Lauri Hussar” link is read out as “heading level 3, link, Lauri Hussar”. Both links take the user to the same place.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.2.4.4.
All activated user interface elements do not have focus style that would distinguish it from other elements when the element is in focus.
After the “Skip navigation” link, the focus is lost for the duration of one TAB key press.
Focus style is not visible on the breadcrumb link.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.2.4.7.
The visible labels of links, buttons and inputs do not correspond to the name read out by the screen reader.
In the case of a highlighted news item on the home page, VoiceOver first reads out the name of the image and then the name of the link, i.e. the link text read out by the screen reader does not start in the same way as the visible text.
The “Riigikogu on Instagram” link is read out by screen readers as “link, heading level 2, Toompea Castle from the air. Photo: Kaupo Kalda”. The link read out by the screen reader and the link visible on the page do not correspond and do not start in the same way.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.2.5.3.
Part of the text on a sub-page that is in another language than the main language of the sub-page is not fixed with a corresponding HTML attribute.
The Russian and English texts in the language selection hanging menu (another language than the main language of the sub-page) are not fixed with a corresponding HTML attribute.
In the language selection, there is an “In English” option, which is in a different language than the main language of the sub-page, but the language code is not indicated in the code.
At the end of the “Submit an information request” form, there is a “Please enter any two digits…” text in English, which is not the main language of the sub-page but is not fixed with a corresponding HTML attribute.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.3.1.2.
When some elements receive focus, there is a significant or unexpected change.
You can move between the tabs of the sub-page “Bills” (“In legislative proceeding”. “First reading”, etc.) and the tabs of the detailed view of a Bill (“All stages of proceeding”, “Initiation”, etc.) by using the arrow keys. Moving between them automatically activates filtering and updates the contents of the table.
In the detailed view of a bill, you can move between the tabs (“All stages of proceeding”, “Initiation”, etc.) with the arrow keys. When you move between the tabs with the arrow keys, the tab also opens automatically on receiving focus, even though the user has not pressed the Enter key.
On the “Keyword search” sub-page, you can move between the tabs with the arrow keys. When moving between the tabs (“Hierarchical search”, “Alphabetical search”) with the arrow keys, the tab opens automatically on receiving focus, even though the user has not pressed the Enter key.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.3.2.1.
Some predefined elements do not have labels and/or explanations that help the user understand what input is expected from them.
There are no labels on the input fields on the sub-page “Document register” (except “From” and “To”).
Required form fields are marked with a red asterisk, but there is no explanation that the asterisk denotes mandatory fields.
On the “Keyword search” sub-page, the “Search” input field under “Alphabetical search” and the “Search for members of the Riigikogu” input field on the “Riigikogu” sub-page have no labels. When the user has entered something in the input field, it is not possible to determine the purpose of the field without deleting the input.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.3.3.2.
The screen reader does not communicate the name and purpose or the change of value of each user interface element.
JAWS takes the “>” icons in the footer into focus and calls them “Link”, then takes the link text into focus and reads it out as regular text.
In the mobile view, the screen readers say about the menu button that it is an image (“Menu, graphics”), and it is not clear that this is a button.
When reading out the headers of tables on some sub-pages, the screen reader says that the header is sorted, but does not say on what basis it is sorted.
Regarding pagination, screen readers do not say which page is active, even though it is visually distinguished.
On the sub-page “Document register”, the screen readers do not say whether the items (“Riigikogu”, “1 Legislation”, “2 Parliamentary control”, etc.) are open or closed.
Screen readers read the social media icons in the header as, for example, “link, Facebook”, “link, Twitter”, etc., which does not make it clear whether the Facebook/Twitter login page or the Riigikogu Facebook/Twitter page will be opened.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.4.1.2.
The screen reader does not read out the status changes of some sub-pages in a way that enables the user to focus on it with the screen reader.
On the sub-page “Contacts”, screen readers do not automatically read out the message “Contact not found. Please specify name and repeat search.”
On the sub-pages “Bills” and “Document register”, the screen readers do not automatically read out the message “Search results: …”.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.4.1.3.
Sub-pages have deficiencies relating to the requirements transposed from the WCAG.
Some sub-pages are not in compliance with the requirements transposed from the WCAG to the standard EN 301 549 V3.2.1 (2021-03).
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 9.6.
Sub-pages do not allow font size setting.
Several sub-pages do not allow font size setting.
The deficiency is causing a non-compliance with accessibility requirement 11.7.
User guide
The homepage of the Riigikogu has been designed to comply with the accessibility guidelines of WCAG 2.1 Level AA and the accessibility standard EN 301 549 V.3.2.1. This means that certain technical tools have been used to help users with visual, hearing, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning and neurological disabilities to have access to the content of the homepage. This objective has also been kept in mind when designing the content. Access to information can be further improved by configuring your computer at browser and operating system level.
Overview of main tools
Navigating by keyboard
It is possible to navigate the website by keyboard alone. To do this, use the TAB key. Each press moves the focus to the next element. The currently active element is marked by a box surrounding it. To activate a link in focus, press the “Enter” key on the keyboard.
Enlarging the content
To enlarge the content of the homepage, we first recommend to use the functionality built into the web browser.
Web browsers
In all popular web browsers, it is possible to zoom in and out of the page by holding down the “Ctrl” key (“Cmd” key in OS X operating system) and at the same time pressing either “+” or “–”. Another convenient option is to hold down the “Ctrl” key and at the same time roll the mouse wheel. To restore the normal size, press “Ctrl” and “0” keys simultaneously.
Using the screen reader
Screen reader is a program for interpreting the content displayed on the screen and conveying it in other forms, e.g. as sounds or audio comments. It is mainly a tool for visually impaired persons.
A selection of popular screen readers:
Feedback
We are constantly striving to improve the accessibility of this website. If you wish to give feedback on accessibility or if something you need is not accessible, please do not hesitate to contact us via the contact details below.
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +372 631 6331
We will usually reply within five working days.
Supervisory authority
The accessibility of websites and applications for public services is supervised by the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority.
Website: www.ttja.ee
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +372 667 2000
Creation of the notice
This accessibility notice is based on a self-assessment.
Last modified on 4 December 2025.
Last updated: 09.12.2025
