There are over 761,000 public sector websites in the EU that offer access to information and services. However, only a third of them meet international web-accessibility standards, e.g. by enabling the user to enlarge texts and images, enriching videos with sign language, underlining clickable links or making the website navigable with a keyboard alone. This means that many online public services are difficult, if not impossible to access for vulnerable people, elderly or disabled persons.
What is more, the market for accessibility technology is highly fragmented, due to a wide variety of diverging national accessibility specifications that lead to uncertainty and loss of opportunity for SMEs in particular. To address this situation and to bring the EU in line with its political commitments at UN level, the Commission in December 2012 put forward a proposal for a directive on the accessibility of public sector bodies' websites. The proposal aims to introduce mandatory EU standardised accessibility features for certain types of public sector websites, in order to render the content of these websites accessible to all users. It also clarifies what web-accessibility means and encourages Member States to apply these rules across all public sector websites.
IMCO has taken the lead in the European Parliament's work on the proposal, adopting its report in November 2013. The plenary approved the report in February 2014 with 593 votes to 40 with 13 abstentions. This vote constitutes the European Parliament’s first reading position, which the Council of Ministers may accept or adopt its own position, for further discussion with Parliament.
The Parliament position extends the scope of the directive to ensure that all public sector bodies' websites are fully accessible, not just the 12 categories proposed by the Commission. It also voted in favor of an extension of the new rules to websites belonging to other entities performing public tasks such as the provision of gas, heat, electricity or water, transport, or electronic communication services. In line with the scope extension, the report foresees a set of staggered deadlines, distinguishing between new and existing content and with a further transitional period for live audio content. In addition, the Parliament proposes that a separate authority be nominated in each Member State tasked with monitoring and rigorously enforcing the rules and setting up a complaint mechanism for problems with web accessibility.
Rapporteur: Jorgo Chatzimarkakis (ALDE)
Shadow rapporteurs are: Rafal Trzaskowski (EPP), Vincente Garces Ramon (S&D), Christian Engström (Greens) and Adam Bielan (ECR).
Source : © European Union, 2014 - EP