Conformity Assessment in the Public Procurement of Accessible ICT

Public procurement is an important instrument for improving the accessibility of the information society. In Europe, in December 2005, the European Commission issued mandate M/376 to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI, to harmonize and facilitate the public procurement of accessible ICT products and services by identifying a set of functional European accessibility requirements for public procurement of products and services in the ICT domain. The mandate is to be carried out in two phases: Phase I – inventory of accessibility requirements and assessment of suitable testing and conformity schemes, and Phase II – standardization activities. This paper presents an overview of the technical report produced by the authors as members of a CEN and CENELEC project team assigned to carry out “an analysis of testing and conformity schemes of products and services meeting accessibility requirements”. The work was developed from October 2007 until October 2008

European Union Location Framework - Guidelines for public procurement of geospatial technologies

These guidelines focus on the procurement of location information products and services, such as the acquisition of new location data to support applications, the acquisition of solutions for using location data and services in e Government processes and products and/or services for making data interoperable and/or accessible. The procurement can take place as part of the development of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), the implementation of the INSPIRE regulation, or any other Directive in which such information and services are important, or within the context of regular activities of spatial data and service providers and users (e.g. Mapping and Cadastre Agencies, Government departments, local public administrations). The guidelines provide recommendations on elements of best practice in procurement in which location information and location enabled services are important, with some practical examples; and describe some concrete sample texts that could be used in invitations to tender when reference is made to location information and location enabled service requirements. The procurement process is also explained as part of a potential future e-procurement platform in which the application and updating of geospatial standards (through change requests) could be integrated as well.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Mandate M 376: new software accessibility requirements

Software needs to be accessible for persons with disabilities and there are several guidelines to assist developers in building more accessible software. Regulation activities are beginning to make the accessibility of software a mandatory requirement in some countries. One such activity is the European Mandate M 376, which will result in a European standard (EN 301 549) defining functional accessibility requirements for information and communication technology products and services. This paper provides an overview of Mandate M 376 and EN 301 549, and describes the requirements for software accessibility defined in EN 301 549, according to a feature-based approac

Requirements for a Method of Software Accessibility Conformity Assessment

Given the current trend of public procurement of accessible products and services, including software, there is a need for the suppliers to demonstrate that a software product conforms to accessibility requirements. This is called software accessibility conformity assessment. Today, the evaluation process, and the techniques and tools required to do this, is not as well defined as it is in other contexts, such as web accessibility. Based on our experience in evaluating accessibility, this paper outlines a set of requirements for a method of software accessibility conformity assessment. These requirements will apply across the four conformity assessment functions: selection, determination, review and attestation, and, finally, surveillance

Improving ICT accessibility using standards and legislation.

The aim of this presentation is to look at the role that standardisation has to play in ensuring that ICT equipment and services are designed in an accessible way and are accessible in use. There has previously been a significant amount of research aimed at removing barriers to participation in the Information Society by disabled and older people. Knowledge gained from this research has been codified into accessibility standards. The standardisation process can promote accessibility in three ways; • As a way of codifying existing best practise to enable non experts to follow. • As a way of setting the level of accessibility for legislation. • As a method for making the most effective use of the limited resources within the accessibility field. Objectives of presentation and benefits for the audience The creation and implementation of accessible ICT depends on the involvement of ICT professionals who; • Understand user requirements for the complete range of users. • Know and are able to use solutions that meet user needs. • Develop new accessibility solutions where required. • Make a commitment to the use of accessibility solutions. The paper will discuss how codifying best practise knowledge into standards can be used to assist the ICT professionals by focusing on the following points; • The potential benefits of accessibility standardisation. • The use of standards to support accessibility legislation. • The use of standards as a way of sharing best practise. • The problems which must be overcome to maximise the effect of relevant standards and legislation

Regulatory Reflorm in Germany: Enhancing Market Openness through Regulatory Reform

This report assesses the impact of regulations and the regulatory process in Germany on trade and investment, as well as the extent to which market openness considerations are incorporated into the general policy framework for regulations. The assessment is based on six efficient regulation principles developed by the OECD, namely: transparency, non-discrimination; avoidance of unnecessary trade restrictiveness; use of internationally harmonized standards; streamlining conformity assessment; and integration of competition principles into the regulatory framework. Through broad application of the six efficient regulation principles Germany has been very successful in establishing a regulatory framework that has competently underpinned German participation international competition and the global economy. International stakeholders trading with or investing in Germany are confronted with an extensively elaborated regulatory framework of high quality. Particular mention may be made of the important steps taken to facilitate customs procedures, with a positive impact on trade flows. Equally, the country has taken a leading role in contributing to the spread of internationally harmonized standards and the recognition of foreign measures. The reduction of barriers to trade and investment worldwide has enabled Germany to take advantage of the expanding global market. At the same time a gradually more open market in Germany has provided benefits to consumers and contributed to economic growth and innovation. The progressive liberalisation of the German market has been driven not only by domestic forces, but even more so by regulations that follow from agreements at the regional and international level. Despite Germany's success in establishing a regulatory system that strongly supports market openness, there remains room for improvement in some areas. The general accessibility of regulatory information permits high levels of transparency; however, the extreme complexity of the legal architecture represents a significant challenge to new market entrants, particularly foreigners. Non-domestic stakeholders may need a substantial amount of time and resources to understand various and occasionally duplicative regulations and institutions applying them. This circumstance is rendered more acute by the exactness with which the regulatory framework is implemented. In addition, there is room for progress in the area of public procurement, where the country is not profiting from the opportunity of taking a forefront position within the EU which would reflect its economic capacity. Among EU countries Germany has the lowest level of public procurement tenders openly advertised at the European level and does not provide adequate legal protection for bidders competing for tenders below the EU threshold. In Germany, like in other EU countries, the regulatory processes in areas directly or indirectly affecting trade and investment are initiated at the EU level or directed by decisions of the EU with implementation often taking place at the national level. Reflecting this distribution of responsibilities, there is a tendency at the national level not to consider the full extent of international implications. At the national level the advantages of adopting an international perspective are not yet taken to their full extent. To give an example, regulatory impact assessments do not explicitly address trade and investment related aspects. The German administration is aware of the need to further change the regulatory framework in order to enhance economic growth. Several promising ongoing reform initiatives address many, if not most, areas covered in this report. The impact and pace of these reforms remains to be seen and evaluated.Regulatory reform, trade, market access, non-tariff measures

White Paper: promoting Design for All and e-Accessibility in Europe.

This White Paper results from the collaboration of Design for All (DfA) and e-Accessibility expert bodies representing the European Union member states [ref: the coordination centres of the national European Design for All e-Accessibility network (EDeAN) in 23 European Union Member States, in this document referred to as NCCs]. The objectives of this White Paper are threefold: (1) to present the current state of affairs of EDeAN, active since 2002 as part of the European Commission’s action line supporting the development of the European Information Society; (2) to outline a roadmap for future initiatives, actively reflecting views of the EDeAN network in specific domains related to DfA, e-Accessibility and e-Inclusion; and (3) to bring forward a set of suggestions and recommendations regarding the activities of the network, aiming to support the creation of a fully inclusive European Information Society. The paper is organised as follows: Section 1 provides a short introduction to DfA and Accessibility in Information Society (IS) and Information Society Technology (IST) developments in Europe. Section 2 provides an overview of policy as well as R&D activities related to DfA and accessibility in IST in Europe. Section 3 briefly describes the role of EDeAN and the new challenges that emerge as a result of the changing European policy environment. Section 4 presents current challenges that emerge in five domains directly related to DfA and accessibility, such as policy and legislation, industry, monitoring and evaluation—benchmarking, standardisation, R&D, and education and training. Finally, Sect. 5 puts forward a number of recommendations with regard to future activities for EDeAN. The contents of this paper reflect results from the open discussion forums supported in the EDeAN website (ref: EDeAN Special Interest Groups, SIGs). The draft paper was written by the EDeAN Secretariat for 2005, FORTH-ICS (Greece), and completed with the support of all NCCs. Support was also provided by the European Commission DG Information Society and Media and by the D4ALLnet project (ref: an EC funded project with the code IST-2001-38833)

Understanding HCI policy in Spain in the context of acces

Spain pioneered policies related to disability and accessibility, especially in the physical environment. The first major piece of legislation was Act 13/1982 on the Social Integration of People with Disabilities. The law was published just a few years after the reinstitution of democracy in Spain in 1977 and the approval of the Spanish Constitution in 1978. Act 13/1982 is a general law that applies accessibility to social services and education, as well as to workplace and physical accessibility. This law targeted first and foremost the social integration of people with disabilities, and it was a significant success, especially in the field of employment, as it made it mandatory for private companies and public administrations to employ a certain percentage of persons with disabilities. This greatly increased the employability of people with disabilities, as highlighted in a document celebrating 30 years of Act 13/1982. Over the past 20 years, policy makers have also focused on accessibility to information and communication technologies (ICT), developing first the national computing accessibility standards and then specialized legislation. Initially, Spanish activities were mostly national but have now gained an international dimension. All these initiatives are strongly related to the discipline of human-computer interaction, as the key component of an accessible system is its user interface