By the
end of 2005, public procurement rules may also change, to demand
that authorities award contracts only to bidders providing
accessible services.
These messages are part of a Commission Communication on what it
calls eAccessibility. Published today, it calls upon Member States
to do more to promote EU eAccessibility initiatives and to
encourage uptake by industry.
The need for change
People with disabilities comprise about 15% of the European
population, according to the Commission, and many of them face
barriers when using ICT products
and services. Many older people face similar problems and the and
the number of elderly people is rising fast: 18% of the population
was aged over 60 in 1990; 30% will be over 60 by 2030, according to
UN figures.
Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding spoke
of the opportunities for ICT today: “The demographic change in
Europe is a tremendous social challenge that Information and
Communication Technologies can help to tackle."
She continued: “New electronic devices, services and
technologies can be used and further developed to enhance the older
generation’s quality of life, support independent living and help
them contribute their experience and talents to our economy and
society."
She also acknowledged the commercial opportunities in this
developing market for products and services. But the Commission is
conscious of the need for progress, a message sent in feedback to
an EU consultation at the start of the year.
There were fewer than 500 responses to the
consultation – which equates to only about one in a
million people living in the EU – but 88% of those who did respond
agreed that the European institutions should take initiatives to
make ICT products and services more accessible.
Among the suggestions in the consultation was an accessibility
certification scheme for products and services. Six months ago, the
Commission published its findings from the consultation and
concluded that a voluntary self-certification scheme was the
preferred way forward. Curiously, this route was favoured by only
16.1% of respondents, while a mandatory scheme was favoured by
51.5% of respondents.
Today's proposal opts for voluntary initiatives, at least for
now.
The report notes some of the ICT problems faced by disabled
people: web accessibility for those with visual and cognitive
disabilities; screen readers that don't work after new operating
system releases; interference between mobile phones and hearing
aids; or the fact that there are seven different, incompatible text
phone systems for deaf and hard-of-hearing users.
Laws on accessibility today
There are existing European policies and laws that recognise the
need for accessibility, making reference to the inclusion of
disabled and elderly people; but they stop short of imposing such
inclusion. These include the Electronic Communications Directives,
the Universal Services Directives and the Public Procurement
Directive.
Some Member States have passed their own laws. The one that goes
farthest for IT is the UK's Disability Discrimination
Act, in practice demanding that websites are accessible to
the public and that intranets are accessible to staff, albeit there
is no obligation for goods to be accessible.
The Commission is conscious of the need for harmonisation and
the risk to industry of market fragmentation caused by differing
eAccessibility requirements. "The risk for consumers is even
greater," it notes in its paper, "particularly for people with
disabilities and older persons: a fragmented market means costlier,
more unfamiliar and incompatible products, more difficulty in
accessing/moving information across borders, etc."
However, new laws are not proposed in the short term; rather,
the Commission says the "eAccessibility potential" of existing laws
will be exploited – something that will be the subject of a study
later in the year.
Standards
Standardisation could bring economies of scale for manufacturers
and that should mean price reductions for the consumer. Agreeing
common accessibility standards for ICT in Europe should also ensure
compatibility and interoperability amongst accessible products.
The Commission is looking at introducing new European Standards
on eAccessibility that it hopes will meet the needs of industry,
designers and providers of products and services without hampering
creativity or innovation.
It hopes the standards themselves will be free or available at a
reduced cost to make their uptake easier, especially by SMEs. The
paper comments: "Whilst promoting interoperability, care should be
taken that patented technologies without reasonable and
non-discriminatory (RAND) licensing are not promoted as standard
solutions."
It notes that Member States have already committed themselves to
make their public websites accessible according to WCAG guidelines. It
also sees a need for certification schemes of web accessibility as
a result of those Member States, like the UK, that mandate
accessibility and have a need to assess compliance. It mentions a
European Committee for Normalization (CEN) Workshop that is already
working on specifications for a
European web accessibility certification scheme and a Quality
Mark. It does not elaborate on this.
Public procurement
Existing Public Procurement Directives mention the possibility
of including accessibility requirements in conditions for tender;
but this is not an obligation. The Commission says it is now
prepared to follow the US example, where the a rule known as
Section 508 mandates accessibility requirements in
federal procurement.
So the Commission is preparing a mandate to the European
standardisation organisation to develop European accessibility
requirements for public procurement of products and services in the
ICT domain.
"The mandate is currently submitted to the Member States for
consultation," it notes in the paper. "It is foreseen to be issued
to the European standardisation organisations by the end of
2005."
Certification
The Commission notes that ICT standards exist for making
products and services accessible; but it notes that, "at present
there is no reliable means to assess the conformity of products
with those accessibility standards."
Accordingly, it advocates certification schemes for
"accessibility of products, organisational processes and
professionals (based on the
European Key Mark and on European standards). A Commission will
be launching a study on this towards the end of 2005.
Watching for progress
Two years from now, the Commission will review the state of
eAccessibility. At that point, according to today's paper, "the
Commission may consider additional measures, including new
legislation if deemed necessary."
Editor's note: If you have any comments about
this story or about the accessibility of OUT-LAW.COM, please
contact me: struan.robertson@out-law.com
