Despite Member States' political commitment to web accessibility, only one third of Europe's 761,000 public sector websites are fully accessible today. Suppliers of accessibility technology face a wide variety of diverging national specifications, leading to market fragmentation and uncertainty. The proposal introduces mandatory EU standardised accessibility features for 12 types of essential public services. It also clarifies what web-accessibility means and encourages Member States to apply these rules across all public services.
The exchange of view commenced with a practical demonstration of what web accessibility means in practice, the barriers encountered and the solutions available to overcome these. The subject was introduced by Mr Eric Velleman (Stichting Accessibility, NL), followed by a practical demonstration of how a blind person (Mrs Ioanna-Maria Gertsou, Lara Guide Dogs School, GR) manoeuvres a website, using assistive technology and concluded by plea from the European Disability Forum (Mr Rodolfo Cattani) on the need to strengthen the current proposal. Finally, the Committee invited the rapporteur of the European Economic and Social Committee, Mr Ask Løvbjerg Abildgaard, to present the draft report prepared by the EESC. The EESC rapporteur welcomed the Commission's proposal but believed it could be improved significantly, in particular in relation to its scope and with regard to the flanking measures proposed.
Source : © European Union, 2013 - EP