eAccessibility and web Accessibility European Actions

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eAccessibility and web AccessibilityEuropean
Actions

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Unit eInclusion
EYPD2003
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e-Europe

• Lisbon ? e-Europe initiative an Information
  Society for All
• e-Europe Action Plan 2002
• e-Accessibility ? EC DG EMPL INFSO ? ESDIS /
  eAccessibility Experts WG
• Accessibility of Public Web Sites and their
  Content (ref. WAI)
• EC Communication (Sept-2001) to EP, Council, CoR,
  ESC
• Council Resolutions (March-2002 Dec-2002)
• CoR Opinion (May-2002) , ESC Opinion (Feb-2002)
• EP Resolution (June-2002)
• e-Europe Action Plan 2002 WAI final report
• EYPD2003 e-Europe Action Plan 2005
• eAccessibility Communication
• i2010

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Communication, Opinions and Resolutions and MS
situations

• Commitment
• WCAG1 conformance level A (MEPs wish for AA)
• some MS level AA and/or legislation
• Web sites
• National/Federal level (MS) EU institutions
• Regional, Local
• Extension to publicly funded projects, and
  investigation on how to act on commercial or
  social private sites
• Support Actions
• Training,awareness, tools, best practices
  exchange, RTD
• Monitoring Comparable data gt Common methodology

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Web Levels of Accessibility Monitoring
Questionnaire to MS and to EU institutions
Guidelines Compliance and Accessibility
Assessment, delegation of tasks, possible
feedback to author and labelling
Not yet in place
gt Synthetic Reporting to EP and Council (end
2003)
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Comparable data ? Common Methodology
In each Jurisdiction
Questionnaire on Support Actions
Sites inventory
Sites/Pages Assessment
Label
comments
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Accessibility of public Web Sites and their
content (pages, material, applications)
European Commission services ESDIS HG
e-Accessibility Experts Group
CEiii experts ?
Monitoring Methodology and Infrastructure
National Government responsible entities
National level Organisations
European level Organisations
EuroAccessibility
other Survey Expertise ?
Overall Progress Indicators( possibly
individual marking)
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Monitoring Support

• W3C / WAI / EOWG FP5 / IST / AMs
• material, support, methodologies, v2,
• Possible FP6 / IST RTD projects (for the future)
• Some MS initiatives ? reported by ESDIS / e-Acc.
  Experts WG (D, UK, IRL first results apparently
  not brilliant) Euro-Accessibility initiative
  (MS NGOs) ?
• DG INFSO e-Gov/e-Inclusion TopOfTheWeb
  contract(2500 publics sites in EU, first results
  soon, apparently not brilliant)
• EU Institutions level
• EC / Europa Quality-Control (DG Press Ascii
  contractor)
• Others ?

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Questionnaire (for each Juridiction/institution)

• Official framework and responsible bodies
  (decision, implementation, monitoring)?
• Magnitude of the task and inventory of sites?
• Monitoring methodology in place (if any)?
• Accessibility situation (measured or estimated)?
• Main actors (politicians, services, contractors)?
• Training available and used, qualifications
  required /procurement clauses?
• Tools for authoring and repairing, editorial
  contracts?
• Quality control or certification system?
• Issues related to Web Applications or
  Documents (e.g. PDF, Office formats)

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Questionnaire

• Monitoring
• commitment
• efforts, progress

EC DG EMPL / Disability
/ Knowledge Society DG INFSO / Disable
Elderly
Ceiii
Report
ESDIS eAcc. Exp. WG
EC
European Institutions
Member States (national/federal level)
?
Regions and Municipalities
Policy-makers, Managers, IRMs, Web-masters,
Web-scribes Trainers, Monitors,
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Short term monitoring (superficial)

• Top-of-the-Web E-Government EC project
• 2500 sites all over Europe, e-services oriented
• Methodology designed in collaboration with NL
  Bartimeus (representing WAI) but simplified to
  enter in the given budget. About 15 checkpoints.
• Automatic process based on CynthiaSays (Prof.
  version) for detecting bad points (home pages
  up to 250 subpages)
• Human checkup when no bad points detected (home
  page plus up to 5 pages per checkpoint)
• More info results next time (aggregation issues)

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Automatic Assessment Tools

• Specifications availability and Tools validation?
• Commercial products (European?, localised?),
  National products?
• Causes for the apparent missing open source
  approach (niche market? competition benefits? )
• Complementary tools regarding language complexity
  analysis
• Mixing or not page assessment and site pages
  walking processes
• Semi-automatic tools, AI-based tools

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Complementary preliminary monitoring

• Nov.2002 Report from Ireland (DCU/Rince)
• Barry McMullin team (EDeAN member,
  Euro-Accessibility partner)
• Current extension to other countries (not public
  specific)
• Others
• NL Bartimeus approach (partly used in our
  Top-of-the-Web e-Government project)
• Fraunhofer development (D) open-source
  possibility?
• RobAcc project (NO/DK) OCAWA (F) AI
  potentials
• Euro-Accessibility ???
• Common risk only negative aspects highlighted

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WAB cluster

• Introduction
• Evaluation procedures and conformance
• Scope of a Web site and methods for sampling
• Evaluation guidelines and checklists
• Aggregation of test results and reporting of
  results
• User testing protocols
• Scoring and reporting results

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Methodology Conclusion

• Still a lot of work to be done
• To keep in mind when designing the methodology
• Transfer (on long term ?) to National, European
  or International bodies for standardisation
  statistics collection/survey
• see recent interest by ISI/IAOS Tokyo2001, OECD,
  UN, to ICT Internet related matters
• Web accessibility is a science or still an
  art

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M i s s i o n

• This is to be achieved by
• Promoting eInclusion as a core horizontal
  building block in the establishment of the
  Information Society
• Supportive complementary measures and activities
  socio-economic, regulatory, educational, ethical,
  policy making and standardisation
• co-operation with external partners and other
  Commission services

All Europeans have the right to participate fully
and without discrimination in the information and
knowledge society
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Mainstreaming accessibility

• Technology-based products services are
  everywhere
• To make them accessible, a twin approach is
  needed
• Research-based technology development
• Politically-supported policies to create a
  favourable industrial / market environment
• Complementary measures
• ? Raising awareness ? Policy coordination
• ? Legislation ? Standardisation
• ? Public Procurement ? Education
• ? Social dialogue ? Monitoring benchmarking

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eEurope policy achievments

• 2000 -gt2002 eEurope 2002
• Design for all and assistive technologies
  standardization
• Creation of an European Network on Design for
  All
• Setting of the eAccessibility Expert group.
• 2002 -gt 2005 eEurope 2005
• Adoption of WAI guidelines
• Mainstream eAccessibility in eServices (eHealth,
  eGov, etc)
• Explore eAccessibility requirements in Public
  Procurement
• Pilot courses based on a European DfA
  curriculum.
• Communication on e Accessibility

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Communication on eAccessibility Why now ?

• Deployment of existing European policies is
  uneven and slow
• Industry lacks incentive to mainstream
  eAccessibility
• Accessible ICT goods and services are not
  competitive enough
• increasing the risk of digital divide

eAccessibility Communication aims at promoting a
consistent approach to EU eAccessibility
initiatives in the Member states, on a voluntary
basis, and at fostering industry self regulation
to better meet market needs
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Commission Communication on eAccessibility (1)
Policy objective
Increase the availability of quality Accessible
ICT products and services in Europe

• Action is needed to foster EU-wide solutions
• The ICT market is not providing enough timely
  solutions
• Technical requirements standards being
  developed nationally

• Public Procurement
• Possible use of accessibility requirements for
  ICT products and services as specifications and
  criteria to select bids
• Certification
• Council (Jan 2003) has called for an
  eAccessibility mark
• Legislation
• Full eAccessibility potential of current
  legislation needs exploring

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eAccessibility CommunicationAn Information
Society for All

• eAccessibility aims at overcoming the technical
  barriers that people experience when trying to
  participate on equal terms in the Information
  Society.
• Concerns at least 20 of the European population
  (about 90 M)
• Represents a growing market due to the
  demographic shift
• 63 of people with disabilities are 45 years or
  older
• .

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Commission Communication on eAccessibility

• Consultation from 10/Jan until 12/Febr/2005
• 489 replies received all expectations exceeded!
• Good coverage of target groups
• Nearly 55 of respondents were experts/
  professionals
• 1 out of 4 uses some type of eAccessibility
  product/ service
• Although optional, nearly 65 of respondents
  chose to
• identify themselves

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Commission Communication on eAccessibility (4)

• RESPONDENTS PROFILE
• Private individuals 57.1
• ... among which
• Persons with disabilities 21.1
• Persons gt 60 years old 7.9
• Organisations 39.9
• ... among which
• Public Agencies 19
• Manufacturers, providers or sellers
• of eAccessibility products services 22.6
• University Research Groups 8,7
• User Associations, Consumer
• Associations or similar (non-profit) 17.4
• Business Associations 9.2
• Others 22.7

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Stakeholder consultation
1
2
3
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Communication on eAccessibility
Approach

• Improve the consistency of eAccessibility
  requirements in Public Procurement
• Explore the possible benefits of certification
  schemes and standardisation for accessible
  products
• Make better use of the eAccessibility
  potential of existing
• legislation

. . . Complemented by several background measures

• Accessibility requirements and standards.
• Design for All
• Web accessibility
• Benchmark and monitoring.
• Research and technological development.

Progress will be reviewed in two years from now
when additional measures may be proposed
including new legislation
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Public procurement the ICT market

• Revised public procurement Directives
• PP 16 EU gross domestic product 1500 Billion
  Euros
• ICT sector 6 EU GDP
• European public sector ICT average spending is
  0,8 of GDP 76billion Euro
• The European average of public sector ICT spend
  that goes to external services such as
  consultancy and outsourcing is 16
• Overall growth rate for public sector ICT across
  EU is 3.3
• Total value of the ICT market in Europe is 594
  billion Euro

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Public Procurement Directives

• The preambles to the revised Directives
  (paragraph 29 of Directive 2004/18/EC and
  paragraph 42 of Directive 2004/17/EC) now state
  that
• Contracting authorities should, whenever
  possible, lay down technical specifications so as
  to take into account accessibility criteria for
  people with disabilities or design for all
  users.
• In addition, the specific Articles on technical
  specifications (Article 23, Paragraph 1 of
  Directive 2004/18/EC and Article 34, Paragraph 1
  of Directive 2004/17/EC) now state that
• Whenever possible these technical
  specifications should be defined so as to take
  into account accessibility criteria for people
  with disabilities or design for all users.
• Award phase(art 53)
• the criteria on which the contracting authorities
  shall base the award of public contracts shall
  either
• (a) when the awards is made to the tender most
  economically advantageous from the point of view
  of the contracting authority, various criteria
  linked to the subject matter of the public
  contract in question, for example quality, price,
  technical merit, aesthetic and functional
  characteristics, environmental characteristics,.
• (b) the lowest price

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International Workshop on Accessibility
Requirements for Public Procurement in the ICT
Domain.Brussels, October 19-21, 2004

• Although there are different approaches
  internationally (which may or may not converge
  over time), there is a general consensus that
  using public procurement to promote accessibility
  of ICT is a good thing
• There is a strong need for internationally
  harmonised standards / requirements (that are
  suitable for use in procurement)
• Such standards / requirements need to be
  objective (and seen to be so), and endorsed by
  all the relevant stakeholders
• There is some confusion (partly semantic) about
  the term voluntary it has different meanings
  in different contexts (standards, self
  regulation, self certification.) industry
  generally favours voluntary approaches
• The user view is that requirements must be
  mandatory, based on objectively defined standards
  / requirements, and be independently verifiable
• There is a real need for supports for procurers,
  for example, in the form of toolkits
• All stakeholders appreciate the benefits of
  working together and are committed to continuing
  this.

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The Draft mandate to the Standardisation
organisations

• Phase I Inventory
• Technology products (ICT)
• Existing accessibility requirements
• Gaps in accessibility requirements
• Existing standards to comply with accessibility
  requirements
• Assessment requirements as technical
  specifications/ award criteria
• Report on testing and certification schemes

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The Draft mandate to the Standardisation
organisations

• Phase II Standardisation Activities
• European standard (EN) Accessibility requirements
  for ICT domain to be used as technical
  specifications
• Technical report (TR) listing existing technical
  standards
• Guidelines on award criteria
• Guidance and support material
• On line freely accessible toolkit

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The Draft mandate to the Standardisation
organisations Underlying principles

• Consider National initiatives
• International cooperation
• User and consumer involvement
• Industry participation
• Involvement of procurers
• Transparent open method

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Commission Communication on eAccessibility (7)

• Clear support for certification / labelling
• Significant wide variations
• Support levels exceed 80 in groups Public
  Agencies and
• Individuals with a disability
• Only 61 of Manufacturers, providers or
  sellers support it,
• while 32 reject it outright

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Commission Communication on eAccessibility (8)
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Better use of legislation

• Electronic Communication Framework
• Universal service Directive
• Terminal Directives
• Employment Equality Directive
• Public Procurement Directive
• Exploiting the eAccessibility potential of
  existing European legislation

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Commission Communication on eAccessibility

• Main messages
• Convey to Member States the urgent need to work
  together towards harmonization of the solutions
  they demand
• Encourage industry to develop accessible
  solutions in their products and services
  (mainstream accessibility!)
• Show the users (with disabilities) the commitment
  of the European Commission to improve
  accessibility in the Information Society

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Measuring progress of eAccessibility in Europe
(results)

• review of the existing methodologies
• survey of existing actions which have improve
  eAccessibility
• Methodology to monitor and identify the existing
  and use of the
• 3 proposed approaches.
• other existing positive actions.
• methodology used to measure
• the rate of eAccessibility in the Member States,
  experienced by people with disabilities and older
  people.
• the rate of eAccessibility, experienced by other
  stakeholders.
• the first measurement and analyse the data. (12m)
• the second measurement and analyse the data.(24
  m)
• final report including conclusions and policy
  recommendations
• 2 workshops to disseminate and validate the
  results of the methodology, measurements and the
  conclusions

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Measuring progress of eAccessibility in Europe
(objectives)

• To identify measures (e.g. policy, legal,
  industrial, ) that have a significant positive
  impact on eAccessibility and that support the
  Community eAccessibility strategy
• To assess how ICT products and services available
  in Europe take into account eAccessibility and
  Design for All
• To assess the eAccessibility situation in Europe
  and to measure its evolution quantifying the
  impact of the proposed approaches and measures
• To assess the implementation of successful
  measures, that can serve as policy
  recommendations in the eAccessibility domain.

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Prior Research Achievements
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From TIDE through TAP ...ISTto FP6

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eInclusion projects in FP6 Call2
Results of IST Call 2 (Oct/2003) 95 submitted
proposals involving more than 1000 partners 13
selected proposals for a total Community grant of
35 M
BENtoWEB, EIAO
Support-EAM
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ICT for growth and employment

• i2010 - The three is
• Information space
• Innovation and investment in research
• Inclusion, better public services and quality of
  life

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Five year goals (3)

• Priority 3 Inclusion, better public services
  and quality of life
• Widening ICT access, accessibility and skills
• Support ICT-enabled services of public interest
  in Europe
• Reinforcing trust and support of ICT use
• Improve quality of life

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eInclusion

• eInclusion means ensuring everyone can
  participate in and reap the benefits of an
  information society.

eAccessibility is a pre-requisite for
eInclusion thus a key objective of i2010 A
European society for all
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For further information

• the eInclusion call for proposals
• http//fp6.cordis.lu/fp6/call_details.cfm?CALL_ID
  208
• projects financed in RTD in previous frame work
  programmes
• http//www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_f/einclusion/
  previous-research.htm
• On the preparatory work for eInclusion research
  for Frame work programme 7
• http//www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_f/einclusion/
  future.htm
• On eInclusion and eAccessibility policies
• http//europa.eu.int/information_society/soccul/ei
  ncl/index_en.htm
• http//europa.eu.int/information_society/policy/ac
  cessibility/index_en.htm
• Inmaculada.placencia-porrero_at_cec.eu.in