Report on the Workshop "Policies and Legislations in favour of e-Accessibility in Europe"

Paris, 31 January

Dominique Burger
Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale
Association BrailleNet


Workshop objectives

The objective of the workshop was to disseminate information about the policies that governments put in place in different countries to foster equal access to the information society in accordance to European policy and decisions. Participants were offered an opportunity to learn from organisations strongly involved in the battle for a better, more accessible, Web. Concrete study cases were discussed. It was an opportunity to hear first-hand about the reactions to these policies, from users with disabilities and members of the Web industry. The workshop was also encouraging the harmonisation of good practices all over Europe.

The following topics were covered in the workshop:

The workshop answered questions like :


Participation

There were 20 presentations by speakers from 10 countries, namely Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom. Speakers were coming from organisations representing users and consumers with disabilities, from governmental bodies, from administrations and from industrial companies. They presented the progresses made in the different countries and discussed how policies are - or should be - implemented by the different actors.

There were around 150 attendees from 16 countries Organisation and Patronage

The workshop was organised jointly by la Cité des sciences et de l'industrie, the EdeAN-France (European Design for All e-Accessibility Network) and the Association BrailleNet, with the support of two European Specific Support Actions : Support-EAM and CWST in the framework of the IST-FP6 programme.

The workshop was under the Patronage of Madame Claudie HAIGNERE, Ministre Déléguée au Affaires Européennes and in the presence of Madame Marie-Anne MONTCHAMP, Secrétaire d'Etat aux Personnes Handicapées, who closed officially the workshop.

Proceedings
The proceedings of the workshop are available on-line on the following websites:
www.edean.org ; www.braillenet.org


Summary of the presentations and discussions

What does accessibility mean?

The term accessibility corresponds to a general concept that everybody agrees on: goods and services shall be designed to make them usable by anybody. Nevertheless, in concrete situations the design of an accessible product (or the decision whether a product is accessible or not) involves operational definitions and instruments that may differ considerably.
For instance the context in which a user will access the product may change. A disability, permanent or not, may change dramatically our judgement on accessibility. Also the professional context generally induces totally different attitudes and needs concerning e-Accessibility. A Web site developer will need technical specifications and documents, while the owners of the web site will principally consider the satisfaction of their clients. Procurers will need a collection of unambiguous requirements to be included in call for tenders. They may attach references to technical documents, as well. Policy makers will have to measure how far their decisions have produced effects. Lawyers may simply need to find certified experts capable of writing authorised reports on accessibility (see paper by A. Garrison)

Outcome: A general outcome from the conference was to better identify and illustrate activities linked to the implementation of accessibility.


European Challenges

It was reminded that the WCAG recommendations are still poorly implemented, in spite of the fact that most European organisations and countries now considerer as the reference document for Web accessibility (see paper by B. McMullin).

Peer Blixt, head of e-Inclusion, presented the policy approach proposed by the European Commission to challenge on e-Accessibility. He particularly insisted on three important aspects :

Recommendation: coordinated actions are necessary to make e-Accessibility a reality in Europe.

Raising awareness
Several presentations have insisted on the fact that accessibility is still not yet understood and that efforts have to be made to be improved this situation. Several presentations have illustrated how it can be done: by means of leaflets, Web Sites, awards, … (see papers by E. Velleman, D. Rice, R. Wallbruch, F. Denizhan, for instance)

Recommendation: A suggestion is to develop outreach material at European level (leaflet, European Award for Accessible Web site, ..)


Public Procurement

R. Shermer, from the Danish Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation, presented an example of what can be done to encourage public procurers to include accessibility requirements in their call for tenders. The toolkit he presented is also designed to make the providers better understand the rationale for these requirements and how they shall be implemented.

Recommendation: This approach should be encouraged and harmonized everywhere in Europe, possibly localized to some extend.

Certification
E. Velleman, from the Bartimeus Accessibility Foundation, presented the strategy followed to set up a Quality Mark in the Netherlands, while P. Guillou, BrailleNet, France, presented the Support Specific Action Support-EAM, pledging that such a Quality Mark can be beneficial to all stakeholders, from private and public sectors.
F. Dulac, presented the efforts made of Eolas-Business-Interactive, France, to get the AccessiWeb label. He detailed how it affected their internal industrial development and quality process. He concluded that for a Web agency the long-term benefit constitutes a good return on investment. This was confirmed by several presentations from both public an private sectors (ASCII, Belgium; IBM Accessibility EMEA; Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports; Federal Chancellery in Austria).

Outcome: The certification of e-accessibility appears to correspond to expectations from both public and private sectors in Europe. The Support-EAM project is a fist step in this direction.


Legislation

Several countries have presented their legislation: France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. The legislative approach generally covers the following aspects:

  1. Policy statement, like " Access to technology and its full use represents today a basic right for all citizens without exception"; " e-Accessibility consists in removing the virtual barriers which are fundamentally equivalent to architectural barriers " in the Italian Law (D. Gargani)
  2. Definitions: accessibility, assistive technology
  3. Who is concerned (Public administrations; companies providing public services; …)
  4. What goods and services: Websites, software, hardware, learning tools, …

Recommendation: For now, not all the European countries have adopted legal obligations for e-accessibility. This should be encouraged. Harmonisation of legal measures adopted should be one objective. In order to facilitate this, a suggestion is to collect comparative description of the legislation and accompanying measures in the different countries.

Other necessary measures
P. Guillou summarised the presentations and discussions in a list of possible measures to be taken by European countries. In addition to those which have been mentioned above, he proposed:

 

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20.11.2009