EDF Report: A Compilation of Resources on the E- and Web-Accessibility Internal Market
June 2012
“In the development and implementation of legislation and policies to implement the present Convention, and in other decision-making processes concerning issues relating to persons with disabilities, States Parties shall closely consult with and actively involve persons with disabilities, including children with disabilities, through their representative organizations.”
Article 4 § 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
List of contents
Abbreviations
1.Introduction
2.E- and Web-Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities
2.1.Reports and Studies about E- and Web-Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities
2.1.1.Report on Releasing Constraints: Projecting the Economic Impacts of Increased Accessibility in Ontario (Canada)
2.1.2.Accessibility to E-Commerce - A Study of People with Disabilities’ Opportunities to Shop Online (Denmark)
2.1.3.Accessibility of Websites in Denmark
2.1.4.Analysis of How Public Authorities Address Web-Accessibility (Denmark)
2.1.5.Proceedings of the 4th European E-Accessibility Forum focusing on E-Accessibility of Public Services in Europe (France)
2.1.6.Open Letter for E-Accessibility of Public Services (France)
2.1.7.Report of the French Accessibility Monitoring Centre (France)
2.1.8.List of E- and Web-Accessibility Reports by Braillenet (France)
2.1.9.IDEOSE, a French Portal on E-Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities (France)
2.1.10.Portal of the Institute on E-Accessibility (France)
2.1.11.Greek E-Government Web Portal for Persons with Disabilities (Greece)
2.1.12.Universally Accessible E-Services for Persons with Disabilities by the PanHellenic Association of the Blind (Greece)
2.1.13.Monitoring Accessibility of Greek Websites (Greece)
2.1.14.ReportingInaccessible Public Websites in Italy
2.1.15.Report on ICT accessibility and social inclusion of people with disabilities and older people in Ireland: The economic and business dimensions (Ireland)
2.1.16.Cost Benefit Study of Implementation of Dutch Web Guidelines “Webrichtlijnen “ (The Netherlands)
2.1.17.Report on Accessibility of Social Networks (Spain)
2.1.18.Report on the Accessibility of Public Administration Websites in 2010 in Spain
2.1.19.Report on the State of Play of Accessibility of ICTs (Spain)
2.1.20.Report on Accessibility of Websites of SMEs in Spain
2.1.21.Reports on Accessibility of Spanish Enterprises (Spain)
2.1.22.Report Presenting Proposals for Future Actions on the Monitoring of E-Accessibility (Sweden)
2.1.23.Report on Electronic Payment and Banks Accessibility in 2010 (Sweden)
2.1.24.Reports on Electronic Payment and Banks (Sweden)
2.1.25.Study on Accessibility of Swiss Websites (Switzerland)
2.1.26.Report ‘Accessible Information and Communication technologies (ICT): Benefits to Business and Society’
2.1.27.Assessing the Effects of the Americans With Disabilities on Accessibility of Goods and Services, Including ICTs, for Persons with Disabilities (United State of America (USA))
2.1.28.List of Web Design References (USA)
2.2.Reports and Studies Outside the Web-Accessibility Field but Applicable to the Digital Environment
2.2.1.Study ‘Socioeconomic Model of Universal Design for Persons with Disabilities in Transport’ (Professor James Odeck)
2.2.2.Report on Economic Impact of Digital Exclusion (USA)
2.2.3.Report ‘Champion for Digital Inclusion, the Economic Case for Digital Inclusion’ (UK)
2.3.The Perspective of Disabled People Organisations on Web-Accessibility in Europe
2.3.1.Web-Accessibility for Deaf Sign Language Users
2.3.2.Accessibility of Websites of Telecommunication Operators: a Good Practice Example from Ireland
2.3.3.Involvement of Disabled People Organisations in Checking Accessibility of Websites: the Good Practice Example from Spain
2.4.Real Life Story of Persons with Disabilities with Regard to Web-Accessibility
2.4.1.Pierre, Belgium
2.4.2.Wim, Belgium
2.4.3.Sofia, Bulgaria
2.4.4.Antonio, Italy
2.4.5.Mark, Ireland
2.4.6.Joseph, Malta
2.4.7.Frank, Netherlands
2.4.8.Wioletta, Poland
2.4.9.Jenny, Romania
2.4.10.Hans, Sweden
2.4.11.Peter, Sweden
3.The Perspective of Companies Operating on the Web-Accessibility Market
3.1.Introduction
3.1.1.Template Survey Sent to Companies Operating on the Web-Accessibility Market
3.1.2.General Remarks
3.2.Amas (Ireland)
3.3.Atalan (France)
3.4.ETU AB (Sweden)
3.5.Frontend (Ireland)
3.6.In Use Consulting (Sweden)
3.7.Open-S (France)
3.8.Royal National Institute of the Blind Access Consultancy Services (United-Kingdom)
3.9.Technosite (Spain)
3.9.1.Designing accessible websites:
3.9.2.Certificating websites:
3.9.3.A List of Additional Costs for Web-Accessibility Service Providers to Offer their Service Throughout Europe
4.The Perspective of Owners of Accessible Website for Persons with Disabilities
4.1.Introduction
4.1.1.Template Survey Sent to Owners of Accessible Websites for Persons with Disabilities
4.1.2.General Remarks
4.2.Hilfsgmeinschaft der Blinden und Sehschwachen Österreichs (Austria)
4.3.Austrian Federal Chancellery (Austria)
4.4.Accessibility of the Website of European or International Organisations (Belgium)
4.5.Danish Association of the Blind (Denmark)
4.6.Danish Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired (Denmark)
4.7.The perspective of a Swedish web site owner with a disability (Sweden)
5.Acknowledgement
6.APPENDIX
6.1.AGE-ANEC-EBU-EDF Document ‘Access Denied! Campaign for Accessible Websites’, June 2011
6.2.AGE-ANEC-EBU-EDF Proposal for a Legal Act on Accessible Websites, June 2011
6.3.AGE-ANEC-EBU-EDF Leaflet ‘Inaccessible Websites: Time to Act!’, July 2011
6.4.Contact Person at the EDF Secretariat:
EDF Report: A Compilation of Resources on the Web-Accessibility Internal Market, February 2012.
The document is available in English, and on alternative format upon demand.
©European Disability Forum 2012. This document may be quoted and reproduced, provided the source is given.
Abbreviations
DPOs / Disabled People OrganisationsEDF / European Disability Forum
EU / European Union
IS / International Sign
IT / Information technology
MS / Member States
UK / United-Kingdom
W3C WAI WCAG / World Wide Web Consortium Web-Accessibility Initiative Web-Content Accessibility Guidelines
1.Introduction
The European Disability Forum (EDF) is the European umbrella organisation led by persons with disabilities and representing the interests of 80 million disabled people in Europe. EDF’s mission is to ensure persons with disabilities full access to fundamental and human rights through their active involvement in policy development and implementation in Europe. EDF works closely with the institutions of the European Union (EU), the Council of Europe and the United Nations.
In the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE), one of the flagship initiatives of Europe 2020 Strategy, the European Commission foresees to take action on web-accessibility by the end of 2011: “based on a review of options, make proposals by 2011 that will make sure that public sector websites (and websites providing basic services to citizens) are fully accessible by 2015.” In this framework, EDF releases its Report: A Compilation of Resources on the Web-Accessibility Internal Market. It consists of a gathering of resources giving further perspectives on the internal market for accessibility of websites for persons with disabilities.We would like to let our readers know that this list of resources is by no means exhaustive.
2.E- and Web-Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities
2.1.Reports and Studies about E- and Web-Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities
The reports and studies listed in this section give further insight on the state of play of web-accessibility forpersons with disabilities in various EU countries, but also in Canada and the United-States of America (USA). Some of the documents also analyse the socio-economic impact of making websites accessible to persons with disabilities, and the larger audience who can benefit from accessibility features.
2.1.1.Report on Releasing Constraints: Projecting the Economic Impacts of Increased Accessibility in Ontario (Canada)
In Canada, Martin Prosperity Institute (MPI), Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC) and Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity (ICP) have generated a report on “Releasing Constraints: Projecting the Economic Impacts of Increased Accessibility in Ontario”.
The report is available online.
2.1.2.Accessibility to E-Commerce - A Study of People with Disabilities’ Opportunities to Shop Online (Denmark)
In 2010, Equal Opportunities Centre for Disabled Persons in Denmark carried out a study of accessibility of 26 sites, all of which relate to online shopping. These are websites with consumer information about online shopping, price comparison sites and e-shops. The study shows that none of the websites are fully accessible and that many of the pages are poorly accessible. The study also shows that there can be problems for some people with disabilities in relation to make payment online and there may be problems with receiving the goods afterwards.
The report is available in Danish in html and PDF format online.
2.1.3.Accessibility of Websites in Denmark
In September 2007, the Danish Government, Local Government and Regions concluded an agreement on the use of mandatory open standards for software in the public sector. The agreement says that all public authorities, from 1 January 2008, are to use 7 sets of open standards when creating new IT solutions.
One of these standards is the web-content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3c). Unfortunately, a comparison of a mapping of public web sites in 2008 and another mapping in 2010 shows that the accessibility of public web sites has not improved since this agreement was made.
Information about the Political Agreement is available in Danish online.
Information about the mappings of accessibility (compliancewith WCAG) of websites in 2008 and 2010 is available in Danish online.
2.1.4.Analysis of How Public Authorities Address Web-Accessibility (Denmark)
The Danish Information Technology and Telecom Agency have conducted an analysis of how the public authorities work with web accessibility.
The analysis shows that web accessibility is not just a question of money. It is also a question of incorporating accessibility features from the very beginning of the development or redesign of websites.
The analysis also shows that the public authorities who have experience with web-accessibility believe that it doesn’t cause extra financial resources to purchase and maintain a good accessible website. However, certain content types (e.g. videos, Web 2-Functions and PDF) create special challenges.
The public authorities who manage to make accessible websites do not consider creating accessible websites to be more costly than websites that do not consider accessibility.
The analysis "Report on the authorities to work with Web Accessibility" has been conducted by Ramboll Management on the basis of a questionnaire and a series of interviews with government authorities and information technology (IT) suppliers.
The analysis shows that:
-Authorities, whose management focuses on web-accessibility, result in good accessibility of their website.
-It is important to be aware of where the responsibility to ensure accessibility is placed in the organisation when a public authority shall ensure good web-accessibility.
-Accurate knowledge of persons with disabilities motivates management and employees to focus on web-accessibility.
-In order to obtain accessible websites, it is crucial that the underlying organization is aware of and understands the relevant guidelinesin Denmark i.e. the WCAG 2.0.
The analysis can be found in Danish on the Danish Information Technologyand Telecom Agency’s website.
2.1.5.Proceedings of the 4th European E-Accessibility Forum focusing on E-Accessibility of Public Services in Europe (France)
In 2010, the 4th European E-Accessibility Forum gathered experts from all Europe to discuss the state of play of accessibility of public services. Several presentations can be useful to better understand the web-accessibility -internal- market.
The proceedings are available in English and French online.
2.1.6.Open Letter for E-Accessibility of Public Services (France)
This open letter was collectively written by several actors operating on the web-accessibility market and is supported by many individuals. It notably explains why the French legislation on accessibility is not delivering its promises for better web-accessibility for persons with disabilities.
The letter is available in French on the article 47 website.
2.1.7.Report of the French Accessibility Monitoring Centre (France)
In May 2011, the French Accessibility Monitoring Centre has issued its first report. It notably explains the state of play of (e-)accessibility in France and gives some recommendations about e- and web-accessibility (from page 108 onwards).
The Report is available in French on the Observatory on the French Monitoring Centre on Accessibility website.
2.1.8.List of E- and Web-Accessibility Reports by Braillenet (France)
On its website, Braillenet, a French organization dealing with accessibility of websites, lists existing French reports about e- and web-accessibility for persons with disabilities. It is updated until 2008.
The list is available in French on Braillenet website.
2.1.9.IDEOSE, a French Portal on E-Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities (France)
IDEOSE is a French portal about e- and web-accessibility. It notably has a good section referring to many resources on e- and web-accessibility.
The portal website is:
2.1.10.Portal of the Institute on E-Accessibility (France)
The portal of the French Institute on E-Accessibility provides with rationale on why acting to deliver e- and web-accessibility for persons with disabilities.
More information is available on the website of the Institute on E-Accessibility.
2.1.11.Greek E-Government Web Portal for Persons with Disabilities (Greece)
The web applications available via the Portal include:
-The Online Citizen Service Centre, a one-stop-shop service for information retrieval and application submission to public administration bodies;
-Job Finding Service, supporting persons with disabilities in searching on – line for jobs, eliminating the need for their physical presence in the workspace in order to conduct any preliminary negotiations with employers;
-Digital library of assistive technology product and services, addressing individual users as well as public bodies and organizations;
-Voice Portal, as an alternative means to access the content available through the Online Citizen Service Centre with the use of telephone.
More information is available in Greek online.
2.1.12.Universally Accessible E-Services for Persons with Disabilities by the PanHellenic Association of the Blind (Greece)
It is a national funded project that aims to promote the equal participation of persons with disabilities in e-government services, and supports independent living by enabling the provision of personalized and informative fully accessible e-services available through mobile devices as well as traditional desktop personal computers equipped with assistive technology.
More information is available in Greek on the website.
2.1.13.Monitoring Accessibility of Greek Websites (Greece)
For a detailed account regarding the status of accessibility of public websites in Greece, see Basdekis et.al. (2010) "An overview of web accessibility in Greece: a comparative study 2004–2008".
More information is available in Greekonline.
2.1.14.Reporting Inaccessible Public Websites in Italy
In Italy, any citizens can report online about the inaccessibility of public websites.
More information is available in Italianon the dedicatedwebsite.
2.1.15.Report on ICT accessibility and social inclusion of people with disabilities and older people in Ireland: The economic and business dimensions (Ireland)
“The report, entitled "ICT accessibility and social inclusion of people with disabilities and older people in Ireland: The economic and business dimensions", was commissioned from the Work Research Centre. It reveals that the rate of access to and usage of the internet among people with disabilities and older people is only half that of the general population. Although this is partly due to socioeconomic factors and attitudes to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), accessibility barriers are also shown to play a significant role. The majority of public and commercial websites in Ireland, for example, have serious accessibility and usability defects. These can present insurmountable barriers to many of the 20.5% of Irish adults who have a disability and/or are in the older age group.” (Extract from NCBI Centre for Inclusive Technology website).
More information is available in English online.
2.1.16.Cost Benefit Study of Implementation of Dutch Web Guidelines “Webrichtlijnen “ (The Netherlands)
“In commission of ECP-EPN, the Platform for the Information Society, the University of Twente conducted a study on the potential costs and benefits of implementation of the Webrichtlijnen (the Dutch web guidelines) for non-governmental organizations, like businesses, corporations, not-for-profit and charity organizations, and other private parties. The Webrichtlijnen are compulsory for Dutch governmental organisations. Although the impression in the market exists that implementing guidelines have a positive effect on different indicators of cost and benefit, it is not possible to make any financial or economic conclusions, due to the lack of hard evidence of effects of implementation of guidelines.”
More information is available in English online.
2.1.17.Report on Accessibility of Social Networks (Spain)
The report is conducted under the auspices of ONCE Foundation.
The whole report is available in word and PDF in Spanish and the Executive Summary is available in word and PDF format online.
2.1.18.Report on the Accessibility of Public Administration Websites in 2010 in Spain
The report presents the current situation of accessibility of public administration websites in Spain in 2010. (Oficina Permanente Especializada. Consejo de la Discapacidad. Ministerio de Sanidad, Política Social e Igualdad).
The report is available in Spanish online.
2.1.19.Report on the State of Play of Accessibility of ICTs (Spain)
Conducted by CERMI, the Spanish Committee of Representatives of Persons with Disabilities, the report highlights the state of play of e-accessibility (CERMI; Fundacion Vodafone; Spanish. El Estado Actual de la Accesibilidad de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC)).
The report is available in Spanish online.
2.1.20.Report on Accessibility of Websites of SMEs in Spain
Conducted by INTECO, the report consists of an analysis of the accessibility of websites of SMEs in Spain (2007).
The report is available in Spanish in PDF format online.
2.1.21.Reports on Accessibility of Spanish Enterprises (Spain)
Conducted by CERMI, the reports analyses accessibility of websites of some Spanish enterprises (CERMI, Observatorio de Accesibilidad de las Páginas de Internet de las principales empresas españolas (2ª entrega 2010) and Observatorio de Accesibilidad de las Páginas de Internet de las principales empresas españolas).
The reports are available in Spanish on CERMI website online and online.
2.1.22.Report Presenting Proposals for Future Actions on the Monitoring of E-Accessibility (Sweden)
This report makes several proposals on how to monitor and follow-up on e-accessibility for persons with disabilities. It explains that the e-accessibility requirements of persons with disabilities are not as well-known as the web-accessibility ones. It also proposes an evaluation system depending on the areas (e.g. education).