In October 2020, an accessibility complaint relating to the Sisu student information system was submitted to the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland with regard to the University of Helsinki. On 22 June 2021, the Regional State Administrative Agency published its decision (in Finnish only), reprimanding the University of Helsinki for serious accessibility deficiencies in Sisu. In its decision, the Regional State Administrative Agency states that the University of Helsinki’s Sisu system does not fulfil the accessibility requirements of the Act on the Provision of Digital Services.
As stated in the University of Helsinki Equality and Diversity Plan, the University is committed to promoting equality and preventing discrimination in all its operations. Continuous efforts are being made to realise accessibility and equality.
“We regret that we have fallen short of this objective in the case of the student information system. We take the situation seriously and aim, through various measures, to speed up the fixes pertaining to accessibility. Until Sisu is made entirely accessible to all students, the University is offering temporary special support for using Sisu,” says Director of Development Susanna Niinistö-Sivuranta from the University of Helsinki.
Development of Sisu continues
Sisu is a large and complex system developed collaboratively by Funidata Oy and the higher education institutions that own the company. Sisu’s development, which began in 2013, is based on the idea of a system used by a range of user groups in several higher education institutions, enabling seamless collaboration between the institutions.
Goals pertaining to accessibility have been further specified alongside the development of relevant legislation. Older features designed in the early stages of the project pose the greatest challenge to making the system accessible. All new features are being designed to be accessible to begin with.
Representatives of the media can obtain further information from
Susanna Niinistö-Sivuranta, director of development, susanna.niinisto-sivuranta@helsinki.fi, phone +358 50 511 5382