18 i2010 and e-Accessibility
| (30244)
16830/08
COM(08) 804
+ ADDs 1- 2
| Commission Communication: Towards an accessible information society
|
| Legal base | — |
| Document originated | 1 December 2008
|
| Deposited in Parliament | 9 December 2008
|
| Department | Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
|
| Basis of consideration | EM of 6 January 2009
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| Previous Committee Report | None; but see (29091) 14872/07: HC 16-vii (2007-08), chapter 10 (9 January 2008)
|
| Discussed in Council | To be determined
|
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Cleared
|
Background
18.1 i2010 is the EU policy framework for information society
and media. It promotes the positive contribution that information
and communication technologies (ICT) can make to the economy,
society and personal quality of life. The i2010 initiative is
an essential part of the Lisbon Strategy and is aimed at harnessing
the potential of ICT to drive innovation and productivity in Europe.[91]
18.2 The framework consists of three pillars: a single
European information space; innovation and ICT R&D; and inclusion,
better public services and quality of life. i2010 promotes a European
Information Society for all citizens through its eInclusion policy,
which is comprised of a number of strands, including e-Accessibility.
18.3 The Commission says that:
"E-accessibility
means overcoming the
technical barriers and difficulties that people with disabilities,
including many elderly people, experience when trying to participate
on equal terms in the information society.
"If everyone is to have equal opportunities
for participation in today's society, the full range of ICT goods,
products and services need to be accessible. This includes computers,
telephones, TVs, online government, online shopping, call centres,
self-service terminals such as automatic teller machines (ATMs)
and ticket machines."[92]
18.4 A high-level conference and exhibition on the
theme "ICT for an inclusive society" was held in Riga,
Latvia, on 11-13 June 2006, organised by the Commission, the Latvian
government and the Austrian Presidency of the EU. Although noting
examples of imaginative and innovative uses of ICT helping
to address some of the key challenges faced by socially excluded
people in many countries and regions in Europe, and beyond, the
Conference also noted that the widespread understanding of the
issues and opportunities surrounding eInclusion, and take-up of
good examples, was not yet evident. Member States and accession
and candidate countries, EFTA and other countries adopted a Declaration
on eInclusion, designed to provide political guidance for future
action.[93]
18.5 Member States thus committed themselves to achieving
targets which would avoid a further widening of the digital gap
and ameliorate the situation, thereby achieving the objectives
of the Lisbon Agenda by 2010. The Declaration identified six areas
where positive action was needed in order to make a digitally
inclusive society for all a reality by 2010 — ICT and Ageing,
eAccessibility, ICT and Competences, ICT and Socio-Cultural
Diversity, Geographical eInclusion and Inclusive eGovernment.
18.6 On 9 January 2008, the Committee considered
Commission Communication 14872/07, "European i2010 initiative
on eInclusion "To be part of the information society",
which was a mid-term review of progress towards i2010 and followed-up
the Riga Ministerial Declaration. It outlined the priorities
and actions that the Commission saw as necessary to achieve a
digitally inclusive society for all by 2010, and concluded that
a step change was required if a further widening of a digital
divide was to be avoided.
18.7 The Commission identified industry as being
key to improving the current situation and encouraged them to
do more with regard to, inter alia, the lack of eAccessibility,
where the Commission saw structural market failures and the lack
of a common approach in the internal market leaving users wanting
to access websites, digital television or have phone access to
emergency services often encountering difficulties.
18.8 The Communication also noted that the role of
public authorities varied from one Member State to another. Though
some had initiatives in place that favoured eInclusion (ranging
from acknowledging legal rights for ICT access and accessibility,
to financial support for eInclusion actions), much more needed
to be done.
18.9 With regard to Bridging the eAccessibility
Gap, the Commission said that between 2008 to 2010 industry
should commit to providing privacy-friendly solutions for persons
with sensory, physical, motor and/or cognitive restrictions to
make use of digital TV (accessible DTV) and of electronic communications
(total conversation) accessible.
18.10 With regard to Accelerating effective participation
of target groups at risk of exclusion and improving quality of
life, the Riga Declaration had identified several target groups
including elderly people, people with disabilities and cultural
minorities. The Commission said that ensuring that the enabling
conditions were in place was necessary but not sufficient; it
was also necessary to stimulate effective use of ICT-enabled services
and provide competence-building opportunities via education and
training services, with e-Inclusion actions that focussed on people
at risk of exclusion, and on those who tended not to use ICT and
were losing out on potential benefits to their quality of life.
18.11 In a comprehensive and helpful Explanatory
Memorandum of 20 December 2007, then Minister of State for Competitiveness
at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
(Stephen Timms) said that the comprehensive eInclusion strategy
presented in the Communication should help overcome the barriers
that individuals wanting to access the digital world encounter,
and maximise the contribution of ICT to economic and social inclusion
which in turn would stimulate business opportunities. He welcomed
many of the points in the Communication, as the Government was
"committed to creating a digitally inclusive society for
all, by overcoming the barriers that hinders the individual's
access to ICT", and shared the Commission's objective of
"enabling as great a proportion as possible of the UK and
European society, irrespective of their location, to actively
participate in the digital world is an objective which HMG shares
with the Commission." The UK Government had launched a programme
of work to consider the implications for next generation access,
which was being led by the Government's independent advisory body,
the Broadband Stakeholder Group. Discussions had already taken
place regarding "the role of the public sector in rolling
out next generation networks, with business leaders from the main
telecoms companies, investment community, Government Departments,
regional public authorities and Ofcom." Furthermore, following
the Central Office of Information's formal consultation of Government
websites' accessibility guidelines, a set of proposals would be
published at the end of 2007 which should improve the current
situation in the UK. Moreover, the UK was also working closely
with the Commission on the Seventh Framework Programme on Information
Society Technologies, the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme
and Article 169 research initiatives, "to maximise the number
of citizens and enterprises able to reap the benefits of the information
society, including the ageing society." There would be further
consultation during 2008 as more details of the Commission strategy
become clear.
18.12 Although the Commission flagged up one or two
areas where it saw the possibility of some sort of legislation,
the Communication itself raised no questions at that stage. The
Committee looked forward to hearing from the Minister as appropriate,
as the Commission strategy unfolded. In the meantime, we reported
this Commission to the House because of the widespread interest
in ICT issues in general and the importance therein of e-Inclusion,
and cleared the document.[94]
The Commission Communication
18.13 Against this background, this latest Communication
addresses the Commission's continuing concerns that urgent action
now needs to be taken by Member States to achieve a more coherent,
common and effective approach in favour of people with disabilities
and elderly persons to e-Accessibility (access to electronic equipment),
with particular focus on Web Accessibility (access to the Internet),
so as to hasten the advent of an accessible information society
as announced in the Renewed Social Agenda.[95]
The Communication is accompanied by a Commission staff working
paper on e-Accessibility and a report from an online public consultation
on the same topic. The Communication also builds on two independent
studies on the situation of e-Accessibility in Europe, conducted
for the Commission.[96]
18.14 The Communication describes the current state
of play, sets out the rationale for EU-level action and proposes
key steps to be taken. It asks Member States, users and industry
to recognise the need to step up efforts and seek more consistent
impact through greater cooperation at European level and better
exploitation of EU policy.
18.15 In order to achieve a common and coherent e-Accessibility
approach, the Commission proposes that:
— European
Standardisation Organisations (ESOs)
should pursue wider e-accessibility standardisation activities
to reduce market fragmentation and facilitate increased adoption
of ICT-enabled goods and services for example by addressing standards
for fixed telephony services, TV broadcasts, and public websites
accessibility;
— Member States, stakeholders and
the Commission should stimulate greater levels of innovation
and deployment in e-Accessibility, in particular through the
use of the EU research and innovation programmes and the Structural
Funds; and
— all stakeholders should make
full use of the opportunities to address e-Accessibility within
existing EU legislation.
18.16 The Commission will include appropriate e-Accessibility
requirements in revisions or new legislative developments.
18.17 The Commission will also boost stakeholder
cooperation activities to enhance the coherence, coordination
and impact of the actions. In particular, a new High-Level Ad
Hoc Group will be mandated to provide strategic guidance on a
coherent overall approach to e-Accessibility (including web accessibility)
and propose priority actions to overcome e-Accessibility barriers.
18.18 To speed up progress in the special case of
web accessibility:
— ESOs
should rapidly adopt European standards for web accessibility,
following the establishment of updated web guidelines (WCAG 2.0)
by the World Wide Web Consortium;
— Member States should step up work
on making public web sites accessible and jointly
prepare for swift adoption of European web accessibility
standards; and
— the Commission will monitor and publish
progress and may follow up at a later stage with legislative
action.
18.19 Annex 1 of the Communication (which we reproduce
at Annex 1 of this chapter of our Report) lists various proposed
e-Accessibility and Web Accessibility actions, with datelines
and those responsible for carrying them out.
The Government's view
18.20 In a helpful Explanatory Memorandum of 6th
January 2009, the Secretary of State for Wales and Minister for
Digital Inclusion (Mr Paul Murphy) explains that although the
Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform,
the Minister for the Cabinet Office and the Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster also have responsibility for e-accessibility
and web accessibility issues covered in this EU Commission Communication,
it is he who is responsible for coordinating Government Digital
Inclusion policies ensuring that the economic benefits of the
digital world are maximised by the private and public sector respectively.
He also notes that the UK's e-accessibility and web accessibility
legislation is a devolved matter and that the devolved administrations
have been consulted in its preparation.
18.21 With respect to Legal and Procedural Issues,
the Secretary of State describes the Communication as looking
at the relationship at a national level between existing legislation
and the actual progress being made by member states on e-accessibility.
He notes that the research points to the legal fragmentation in
the EU being due to divergent legislative measures. Building on
this and earlier related Communications, the Secretary of State
says that although the latest Communication contains no proposals
for legislation, and is essentially focused on awareness raising
and creating increased opportunities for Member States to learn
from one another's experience, "the commission has started
to explore a more general legislative approach to e-accessibility
[and] may revisit this issue if legislation becomes necessary".
18.22 The Secretary of State continues as follows:
"The Commission has proposed Member States make
use of existing legislation to advance accessibility, and indeed
the UK and other Member States currently negotiating the review
of the Regulatory Framework for Electronic Communications have
strengthened disability access rights.
"The UK is considered one of the leaders in
this field, but we very much welcome the opportunity to participate
in the new high level ad-hoc group.
"Along with the Governments Transformational
Programme the UK recently launched its Digital Inclusion Action
plan 'Delivering Digital Inclusion — An Action Plan for
Consultation' which sets out a number of steps to meeting the
Riga targets for accessible government and public websites and
local access facilities for online government services, ensuring
wherever possible that services offer choice as to how citizens
access them, taking account the needs of users, ensuring that
all including the most disadvantaged people and communities benefit
from huge potential of ICT enabled public service transformation.
"The Government is taking the lead on driving
through accessibility standards for public websites and has developed
guidance for all public sector website owners on delivering inclusive
websites.[97] The Government
has also set the minimum standard for public sector websites at
Level Double-A of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, and
put in place target milestones for compliance.
- "For the medium term, it is crucial to provide
content developers and authors with tools that support accessibility
training and to recognise that different roles need different
training.
- "Another medium-term objective is for public
sector organisations to implement an explicit procurement policy
for tools and content, which should have a positive knock-on effect
on the industry.
- "Websites owned by central government departments
are required to comply by December 2009. Websites owned by central
Government agencies have until March 2011.
- "The Government is also working with academia,
industry and the third sector to ensure that all public websites
achieve a high standard of accessibility.
"Government is committed to increase the availability
of broadband in underserved locations to reach at least 90% of
the population. Both the Digital Britain report and the cross-Government
paper 'Delivering Inclusion — An action Plan for Consultation'
will be looking at what Government can do to stimulate take-up
and access of digital technologies in the UK.
"The UK Government is developing the Power of
Information programme to promote innovative ways of providing
all sectors of public with better information about public services
within present EU rules and legislation."
18.23 With regard to Consultation, the Secretary
of State notes that (on 27 October 2008, with an end-date of 19
January 2009) the UK government launched a cross-government paper
"Delivering Digital Inclusion — An Action plan for
Consultation" which sets out a number of recommendations
to improve e-accessibility and web-accessibility. The public sector
guidance on Web Accessibility "Delivering inclusive websites"
was, the Secretary of State says, developed in collaboration with
industry, academia and the third sector including organisations
such as Nomensa, AbilityNet, RNIB, W3C, Adobe and HumanITy. The
consultation documents, in both Word and PDF format, were emailed
to:
— Departmental
Directors of Communications;
— Local government via SOCITM and the Better
Connected team, who are responsible for regular accessibility
evaluations of local government;
— an eInclusion Working Group, representing
UK accessibility policy and with strong industry and third sector
representation (such as BT, Vodafone, Microsoft, Intellect, RNID,
RNIB, Age Concern.);
— the Cross-government Accessibility Network,
led by DWP to look at the issue of accessible ICT in the workplace;
— Accessibility Summit attendees, this
event took place in February 2007 and was attended by thought
leaders in the accessibility community (represented were a strong
academic representation, BBC, BECTA, Museums and Libraries Association);
and
— Selected relevant stakeholders (such
as British Computer Society, Adult Dyslexia Organisation, Shaw
Trust).
The guidance "spread virally through email dissemination
and was debated openly in the blogosphere and relevant online
channels."
18.24 Turning to the question of Impact
Assessment, the Secretary of State says:
"There is an increasing acceptance and recognition
of the important role that digital technologies play in the lives
and life chances of everyone. In particular there is a concern
that a new driver of social exclusion in the 21st Century
will be caused by an inequality in use and application of digital
technologies be that the internet, mobile telephones, digital
TV, better information management or mobile technology to support
front line workers.
"The speed of technological change is immense
and we need to develop the structures to ensure that as these
changes take place that the most vulnerable are not left behind
— but not only that they [are] not left behind, but that
the full potential of digital technology is harnessed to drive
improvements in people's life chances."
18.25 Finally, looking ahead, the Secretary of State
says that Member States will report progress to the High Level
Group by summer 2009, and that the European Parliament, the Committee
of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee are also
invited to express their views on the action to be taken to make
the information society accessible to all from 2009 onwards.
Conclusion
18.26 Although both the Communication and the
Secretary of State make mention of the possibility of legislation,
the thrust of the Commission's approach is plainly towards encouraging,
once more, Member State governments, other public authorities
and industry to make better use of what is available, so as to
make the "step change" for which the Commission has
been calling. Moreover, should any legislative proposals be put
forward, they will be subject to scrutiny in their own right.
18.27 We accordingly clear the Communication,
which we are reporting to the House because of the continuing
importance of the subject matter.
ACTIONS | DATE | RESPONSIBLE |
E-accessibility
1. Establish an ad hoc high-level group to provide
guidance on priorities and a more coherent approach to e-accessibility.
Stakeholders are called upon to commit to this cooperation. |
Early 2009 | EC, stakeholders |
2. Ensure e-accessibility remains a policy priority
in the follow-up to i2010 and disability action plan. | 2009-
| EC |
3. Monitor web-accessibility and e-accessibility
progress and implementation, support cooperation and exchange
of good practices via studies and a CIP thematic network. | 2009-
| EC, industry and stakeholders |
4. Ensure e-accessibility is a strong research
and innovation priority. | 2009 — | EC |
5. Stimulate e-accessibility innovation and deployment
via the Structural Funds, FP7, the AAL programme and national
programmes. | 2009 — | MS, other stakeholders |
6. Provide a disability toolkit applicable to
ICTs for use in Structural Funds and other programmes. | 2009
| EC |
7. Under Mandate 376, rapidly develop EU standards
for e-accessibility, in cooperation with relevant stakeholders.
| 2009- | ESOs |
8. Ensure appropriate e-accessibility provisions
are integrated in revisions of EU legislation. | 2008- | EC |
9. Make full use of opportunities in current
legislation to strengthen e-accessibility. | 2008- | MS, EC industry
and stakeholders |
Web-accessibility
1. Achieve 100% accessibility of public websites
and prepare for rapid transition to updated web accessibility
specifications in a common and coherent way. | 2009-2010 | MS
2. Rapidly develop EU standards for web accessibility
building on WCAG 2.0. | 2009- | ESOs (and stakeholders) |
3. Improve the accessibility of Commission websites,
updating internal guidance to reflect the new specifications.
| 2009- | EC |
4. Websites owners providing services of general
interest and other relevant website owners to improve the accessibility
of their websites. | 2009- | Other stakeholders |
5. Monitor and publish progress and consider
the need for common EU guidance, including legislative action.
| 2009- | EC |
6. Lead in improving the awareness and understanding
of web accessibility in a coherent, efficient and effective manner
and report progress to the high-level group. | 2008- | MS |
91 See http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/index_en.htm
for full information. Back
92
COM(08) 804, page 4. Back
93
See http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/ict_riga_2006/index_en.htm
for full details of the Conference and the Declaration. Back
94
See headnote: (29091) 14872/07: HC 16-vii (2007-08), chapter 10
(9 January 2008). Back
95
COM(08) 412: see (29818) 11517/08: HC 16-xxviii (2007-08), chapter
8 (22 July 2008). Back
96
All this material is available at http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/einclusion/index_en.htm
Back
97
COI Web standards and guidelines - Delivering inclusive websites
(TG102)
http://www.coi.gov.uk/guidance.php?page=129 Back
| 
