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In June 2025, the Act on the Provision of Digital Services and the European Accessibility Directive will be extended to cover online stores and audiovisual services, among other things. What should you know about the amendments to the Act on the Provision of Digital Services and how can a translation agency help with the linguistic accessibility of content?

Accessibility means that everyone has equal access to services. The EU has introduced the Accessibility Directive. In Finland, its requirements are included in the Act on the Provision of Digital Services. The current Act on the Provision of Digital Services takes into account the accessibility requirements that have so far mainly applied to the public sector. In summer 2025, however, the accessibility requirements will be extended to cover also the private sector.

New requirements of the Act on the Provision of Digital Services

In June 2025, services covered by the Act on the Provision of Digital Services must meet the general accessibility requirements and obligations laid down in the Act. The Act on the Provision of Digital Services covers services intended for consumers, such as online stores, e-books, audiovisual services and communications services. The services must comply with the accessibility requirements after the transition period, on 28 June 2025.

The aim of the accessibility requirements is, in particular, to improve the ability of a website or mobile application to be used with different devices and assistive technologies. However, in addition to technical accessibility requirements, clear and understandable language must also be taken into account.

Tips for linguistic accessibility

More and more services are consumed online, which is why the accessibility of content has become an increasingly important criterion. In other words, accessibility is becoming the norm, which is why every online company should plan its digital services to be accessible both technically and linguistically – and a translation agency can help in this.

1. Do not ignore linguistic accessibility

The most important thing for accessibility is clear and comprehensible language. Technically well-executed content is of no use if it is linguistically clumsy or unclear. The text may be unnecessarily difficult to read or written with incorrect language. A website is easy to use when there are no technical challenges and the content is easy to understand.

The easiest way to produce linguistically accessible content is to write it in clear standard language, that is, in easily understandable language without jargon. Clear language is not the same thing as plain language, which is language where the structure and the vocabulary have been adapted to make it easier than standard language. The content and the target group are decisive factors in determining if plain language is needed.

2. Subtitle videos

It is a good idea to subtitle videos even if the law does not require it, because many people watch videos without sound. The text format is not precisely defined, but the most user-friendly method is adding captions that can be easily followed at the same time as watching the video.

At the moment, accessibility requirements do not require videos to be subtitled in other languages. In other words, the guidelines mandate that a Finnish video be subtitled in Finnish, a Swedish video in Swedish and so on. However, having the content translated strengthens the multicultural dimension of accessibility.

Services must also be accessible to those who speak a language other than the language in which the content was originally published. In Finland, public services are designed primarily for speakers of the national languages; however, in the light of accessibility, there is an increasing need to reach immigrants as well. With the help of translated subtitles, you can also reach a wider, international target audience.

3. Transcribe audio content

In audio recordings, such as podcasts, accessibility could be improved by transcribing them as written text. The accessibility requirements of the Act on the Provision of Digital Services require that audio-only broadcasts, such as podcasts, must also be accessible. According to the legislation, organisations affected by the requirements must provide a text version of the recording within two weeks.

For podcasts, this usually means a transcribed text version of the audio recording. As the text version must fulfil the requirements of accessibility, a simple script or summary of the podcast is not sufficient. In practice, the entire content of the recording must be provided in text form, including background sounds, and the text must also indicate who is speaking at any given time.

Creating a text version of the podcast ensures that everyone can enjoy the podcast. In addition, not everyone has time to listen to a 60-minute podcast, for instance: reading the text version is much faster.

If you are reaching for a larger audience, use a translated transcription, in which the podcast is transcribed into another language. You can also use a voiceover to do the entire podcast in a different language.

Corporate language strategy

A company’s language strategy means you decide on which languages will be used, in which channels and how. This raises a few important questions: is all content available in only one or several languages; which language is used on social media; is your website available in Finnish, English or both; and, in addition to Finnish and English, do you need other languages? In addition, the question of who writes, translates and maintains the foreign-language content is also an integral part of the language strategy. Corporate communications should be linguistically consistent, that is, logical. Choose a language strategy and stick to it.

Accessibility is in everyone’s interest. Issues such as the equal treatment of customers, a better user experience and access to a wider market should interest each company and organisation. Accessibility is a key advantage for a company!

Is there room for improvement in the linguistic accessibility of your company’s content? Contact us and let’s find the best solution for your needs!

Subtitles are familiar to most people when they are on the television. A practice that is not so well-know for many is transcribing, which means decoding recorded sound to text. According to the requirements of the Accessibility Act, the information provided in recordings must also be available in a text format, which in practice means that both subtitling and transcribing are becoming more common.

When is transcribing needed?

Transcribing is used, for example, for recording court, meeting and interview recordings in text format. On the other hand, the Act on the Provision of Digital Services, which is based on the Accessibility Act that is in force in Finland, requires that all audio and digital content published by public operators or publicly funded projects be accessible, i.e. they must also be provided in a text form. Therefore, text equivalents are transcribed nowadays for, for example, videos and podcasts.

Transcription means more than just typing something into a text format. Sometimes what is said is more essential than how something is said. This is why it is important to agree on the objective and intended use of the transcription before starting a project and ordering a transcription.

Accuracy of transcription

The most common form of transcription is clean verbatim transcription. In clean verbatim transcription, everything that is irrelevant to the end result, such as possible filler words (like, uh), unnecessary sounds or extra repetitions are omitted from the result of the transcription, i.e. the transcript. Of course, these must be included if they are important for the objective of the transcription, such as a laugh to indicate that the speaker is not being very serious. An example of clean verbatim transcription could be the conversion of a standard recorded interview into a text format.

So-called full verbatim transcription differs from clean verbatim transcription. In full verbatim transcription, all filler words, background noises (doorbell, coughing) and non-verbal communication are recorded in the transcript. Full verbatim transcription is especially necessary when, in addition to speech, one wants to record all possible reactions and expressions. Examples of such situations include psychological or market researches.

Transcription into spoken or standard language?

If spoken language is used in the original audio recording, the transcription is usually also done in spoken language. Even if it would be a case of clean verbatim transcription and the filler words in the speech being omitted, the words and characteristics typical for the spoken language are still present. For example, podcasts are often transcribed in spoken language.

It is a case of transcription in standard language when the speech is changed into a standard, literary form. So, the speech is tidied up a bit by, for example, changing the dialect and slang words from the text equivalent to a standard language form and by omitting sounds and generally everything that is not related to the subject matter. Attention is also paid to grammatical correctness, such as punctuation. This will make the text easier to work with. Transcriptions in standard language can be seen especially in the minutes of meetings and in research interviews. Then, the common thing for the transcriptions is the fact that the most important thing is the content, not the way of speaking.

Speech recognition and transcription

Speech recognition technology is constantly evolving, and the software are understanding Finnish better every day. Therefore, if there is a lot of material to be transcribed, it is probably worth using speech recognition as part of the transcription process.

First, the speech is converted into raw text by the speech recognition software and after that it is edited. Editing is usually necessary because speech recognition may not recognise all words, especially those in spoken language. Similarly, the speech recognition software encounters difficulties if the speakers are speaking simultaneously, articulating poorly or speaking very fast, and words spoken in a language other than the main language of the recording do not usually convert correctly.

Translated transcription

Sometimes the transcription is needed in a language other than the original language. The transcribed material can be translated into another language or, if only a translation is required, the recording to be transcribed can be translated directly upon decoding. In a case like this, the term translated transcription is usually used.

Translated transcription is especially necessary when the transcribed material is processed in a different language. An example of this could be the processing of a market research discussion conducted in Finland in a foreign parent company. The parent company is unlikely to be interested in listening to a discussion in Finnish or reading a text in Finnish, but they want information about the participants’ reactions and opinions translated into the language they understand.

How much does transcribing cost?

The pricing of transcribing is influenced by a number of factors, such as the method of transcribing, the quality and format of the recording as well as the number of speakers. Based on these, a cost estimate is given for the transcription, which is based either on the time spent on the work or the amount of material (the duration of the recording). In addition, how quickly the transcription is needed naturally plays a part.

According to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, audio and video recordings must be made accessible. Sometimes, transcribing is probably the only way to do this (a podcast), and sometimes the text equivalent can be taken care of, for example, with subtitles (a video). Because transcriptions are not timed to videos like subtitles, producing transcriptions is often cheaper than subtitling a video, even if the usability would then suffer.