This approach to driving accessibility throughout the EU's 25
Member States was backed by 90% of the 489 respondents to a
Commission consultation on the need for "eAccessiblity"
measures.
Respondents also said that EU institutions should take the
lead in proposing these measures (88%), that ICT goods and services
need to be made more fully interoperable (74%), and that technical
requirements should be harmonised within and beyond the EU for this
purpose (84%).
But it is less clear how these requirements should be
enforced. The UK places obligations on service providers to embrace
accessibility through its Disability Discrimination Act; but this
Act is not derived from any EU Directive, and despite being 10
years old, it is still far wider in scope than any accessibility
laws passed to date by any of its neighbours.
Although there was clear support among respondents for some
form of product certification or a "labelling" scheme (72%),
respondents were fairly evenly divided on whether this scheme
should be voluntary, mandatory, and/or rely on self-certification
with checks.
Public agencies, consumer groups and individuals with a
disability responded overwhelmingly in favour of mandatory
certification schemes; while most manufacturers and providers and
sellers of eAccessibility products and services favoured voluntary
schemes. Remaining groups stand somewhere in between, according to
the report.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Commission concluded from the survey
that a voluntary self-certification scheme should be the way
forward, at least in the short term – yet this route was favoured
by only 16.1% of respondents. A mandatory scheme was favoured by
51.5% of respondents.
Respondents included public agencies, ICT goods and service
suppliers, universities, business associations and user groups.
Over half of them (54%) described themselves as eAccessibility
experts or professionals.
The survey was short, and did not ask whether accessibility
should be written into EU law. In fact, the choice of questions
prompted a few observers to accuse the Commission of framing its
consultation to elicit the answers that it wanted to hear.
However, it did ask whether respondents felt the suggested
instruments – on public procurement and certification of products
and services – were sufficient. And the 34% who wanted additional
instruments (against 35% who did not) were invited to make
suggestions.
Among these suggestions, a recurring theme was the enforcement
of current legislation that exists in some Member States, where
there are "general obligations" – but where enforcement appears to
be "in practice of nobody's concern." These Member States were not
identified.
Others called for a European law based on the US laws known as
Section 508 (an amendment to its Workplace Rehabilitation Act) and
the Americans with Disabilities Act, albeit UK law goes further
than these laws in some respects. In the US, these laws exist as
tools to promote and also enforce accessibility – albeit the legal
regime for ICT accessibility in the US is far from clear outside
the domain of public procurement.
Welcoming yesterday's report, European Information and Media
Commissioner Viviane Reding said, "This was our first on-line
public consultation on eAccessibility, and the response has far
exceeded our expectations, across all target groups." She added
that the Commission's efforts should bring the benefits of ICT "to
the 90 million EU citizens who are currently unable to reap them in
full."
The Commission's eAccessibility policy focuses on removing
barriers stemming from inappropriate design of ICT products and
services, particularly for people with disabilities and the
elderly.
According to the Commission, this policy relies on several
instruments, so far still seldom used in Europe, that fall within
the existing legal framework (including public procurement, product
certification, and specific legislative provisions), to achieve
voluntary harmonisation of Member States' rules whilst
simultaneously encouraging industry initiatives.
These instruments are supplemented by measures to foster the
development of technical standards enhancing accessibility, teach
eSkills, widen "design-for-all" practices, enhance web
accessibility implementation, encourage Member States to compare
and share good practice, and stimulate accessibility research and
technological development in the ICT field.
Other measures – including possible further legislation at EU
level – may be considered two years from now, according to the
Commission. This will depend on progress and the impact of the
non-mandatory measures in improving accessibility in Europe.
Jon Fell, a partner with Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind
OUT-LAW.COM, said:
"While a consultation on ICT accessibility is undoubtedly a
good thing, I don't share the Commission's enthusiasm at the
results. Fewer than 500 people responded. That hardly seems
representative for a region with almost half a billion people. Only
70 responses came from the UK, where the law relating to web
accessibility has been a hot topic for some time. A big part of the
problem could be that the range of questions was far from
comprehensive. Many people may have been deterred from completing
the survey as soon as they saw the questions."
The Commission says that proposals will be set out in a
Communication scheduled for September 2005.
