commission studies on eaccessibility

EC Studies on eAccesibility

Jose Angel Martínez UseroDirector of International Projects

High Level Group on Disability, October 13th, 2010

1. Study on Monitoring eAccessibility in Europe

• What is the problem?

• Objective

• Scope

• Approach

• Outcomes and MS cooperation

What is the problem?

• eAccessibility progress in Europe is still low

• Need of awareness about status of eAccessibility

• Need of benchmarking information among MS

• Need of detailed information for decision makers and researchers

Objectives

• Monitor the status and progress made in eAccessibility.

• Provide useful information tools for policy makers and researchers

• Establish a direct and regular relationship with the relevant actors

• Define, develop and apply a benchmarking framework.

Scope - countries

12 EU + 3 Non-EU + 2 voluntary basis

EU countries: United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, France, The Netherlands and Czech Republic.

Non-EU countries: United States, Australia and Canada.

Countries participating in a voluntary basis: Norway, Greece

Scope - technologies

TELEPHONY: Fixed; Mobile; Special telephones

INTERNET: Web; Mobile Web

MEDIA: Digital television

HOMES: Digital homes; Telecare

URBAN: Digital information panels

EDUCATION: Electronic books; Elearning platforms

WORK: Office technology hardware and software

ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES: Hardware; Software

Approach

Analysis of national experts (30 + 6)

18 technology experts (technology questionnaire)18 policy experts (policy questionnaire)

Surveys to main stakeholders

Consultation to user associations in order to get feedback on some specific issued covered by the former questionnaire

Workshops with experts

Analysis of main results and feedback from decision makers.

Outcomes

Web Applications:

• Website• Balance Scorecard Tool • Search applications and download of raw data

Reports:

• Two Annual Reports • Policy Inventory by technology - countries• Report on the transposition of eaccessibility articles in Telecom

Directives in MS• Report on the interpretation and implementation of WCAG 2.0

MS cooperation

• Validation of Annual Reports

• Sharing of info

• Participation in the annual workshops

Visit us

http://www.eaccessibility-monitoring.eu

2. Study on Economic Assessment for Improving eAccessibility Services and Products

• What is the problem?

• Objective

• Scope

• Approach

• Outcomes and MS cooperation

What is the problem?

• People with disabilities are still not fully enjoying its benefits and opportunities provided by ICT

• eAccessibility is not a niche market, up to 70 million individuals:Market opportunity

• Need of robust evidence on cost/benefits

• Need of contrasted information at organisational level (decision taking)

• Need of strategic information and macro level (policy development)

Objectives

To provide useful information on costs and benefits of eAccessibility

• At micro-level of analysis:

• Target: Managers of firms and public sector organisations

• Objective: Provide evidence and a practical tool supporting investment decisions in eAccessibility

• At macro-level of analysis:

• Target: Policy makers

• Objective: Provide a view of the magnitude of potential benefits and costs for the economy and society as a whole

Scope

• ICTs to be covered

• Web accessibility (primary focus)

• Digital television

• ATMs and self-service electronic terminals

Provide the best practices in legislation, policies and practices

Provide recommendations for improvement: Legislative, non-legislative, technical, business model and economic

Outcomes

• Outcome: The Business Case tool

• Instrument for ex ante evaluation in support of the decision to invest in web accessibility

• MS cooperation: Facilitating the access to field-level sources at micro-level

• E.g. experts’ tacit knowledge, grey sources, case studies, and documents not available online, etc.

• MS interest: Instrument to assess the MS accessibility initiatives at micro-level.

Outcomes

• Outcome: Aggregate figures of potential benefits and costs for the economy and society as a whole

• MS cooperation: Facilitating the access to:

• Secondary sources (e.g. official statistics, dataset produced by research, etc.) at macro-level

• Case studies of organisations that has carried out eAccessibility initiatives in your country

• MS interest: The macro-economic estimation and extrapolation may be used to support political decisions at macro-level

Outcomes

Recommendations: Legislative, non-legislative, technical, business model and economic

• MS cooperation: Involvement in:

• Validation of the recommendations (01/2011)

• The final workshop to validate and disseminate the main outcomes (04/2011)

• MS interest: Guidelines for policy makers to boost the initiatives supported by the macro-economic estimation and extrapolation

Visit us

http://www.eaccessibility-impacts.eu/

Thanks for your attention

José Angel Martinez UseroDirector of International Projects

jamartinez@technosite.es