Important Step Towards Accessibility in ICT Domain

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Main Digest

The European Commission (EC) has provided European support to these fundamental rights by issuing in 2005 the standardization Mandate M/376 on 'Support of European accessibility requirements for public procurement of products and services in the ICT domain'. The aim of this mandate was to raise awareness of accessibility in the European market and public organizations while fostering interoperability and harmonization at EU level.

The three European Standards Organizations (ESOs), CEN (the European Committee for Standardization), CENELEC (the European Committee for Electro-technical Standardization) and ETSI (The European Telecommunications Standards Institute), have reacted to phase 2 of this Mandate by establishing a Joint Working Group (JWG) on "eAccessibility" to provide a unified response. During Phase I of Mandate M/376, which finished in 2009, national procurement authorities acknowledged that they lacked the specialist human factors knowledge necessary to include accessibility requirements in invitations to tender for the public procurement of ICT products and services.

In order to tackle this issue, standardization work during Phase 2 of M/376 will have an objective to fill in the identified gaps with a set of functional accessibility requirements. The expected outcome of this work is a new European Standard (EN) that will include the functional accessibility requirements applicable to all ICT products and services, intended to be used for conformity assessment in procurement processes, as well as the development of an electronic toolkit enabling procurers to make use of those harmonized requirements in a procurement process.

The JWG appointed Dr. Matthias SCHNEIDER (NOKIA), representing ETSI, as Chairman of the group, with Mrs Cristina RODRAGUEZ-PORRERO (Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Affairs and Equality) and Mr Ascar QUEROL (AFME), representing CEN and CENELEC respectively, as Vice-Chairmen. The secretariat is held by AENOR, the Spanish Association for Standardization and Certification.

Participants of this JWG include national members from CEN and CENELEC, and ETSI members. The European Commission and the European Free Trade Association may also participate. It is foreseen that other stakeholders will be invited to contribute, including representatives of the community of disabled people (e.g. the European Disability Forum and other stakeholders such as ANEC, the European consumer voice in standardization, etc.), as well as international standards organizations and organizations representing other regions of the world.

An ETSI Specialist Task Force (STF) and a CEN Project Team (PT) will develop the deliverables of the Mandate.

The kick-off meeting of the JWG on eAccessibility took place on 15 February 2011 in the CEN-CENELEC Meeting Center in Brussels. The next meeting is scheduled for 23 June 2011 and will be hosted at the CEN-CENELEC Management Center in Brussels.

About ETSI - ETSI produces globally-applicable ICT standards, including fixed, mobile, radio, converged, aeronautical, broadcast and IP technologies. An independent, not-for-profit association, ETSI's 700+ member companies come from 62 countries worldwide. For more information: www.etsi.org

About CEN - The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) is a business catalyst in Europe, removing trade barriers for European stakeholders such as industry, public administration, service providers, consumers and other stakeholders. Through its services CEN provides a platform for the development of European Standards and other specifications. www.cen.eu

About CENELEC - The European Committee for Electro-technical Standardization is officially responsible for standardization in the electro-technical field. CENELEC creates market access at the European level but also at the international level. www.cenelec.eu

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