Policies and Legislations
in favour of e-accessibility in Europe

The objective of the workshop is to disseminate information about the policies put in place by governments in different countries to foster equal access to the information society in accordance to European policy and decisions. Participants will be offered an unique opportunity to learn from organisations strongly involved in the battle for a better, more accessible, Web. The speakers are from organisations representing users and consumers with disabilities, Governmental bodies, administrations and industrial companies. They will present the progresses made in the different countries and will discuss how policies are - or should be - implemented by the different actors. Concrete study cases will be discussed. There will also be an opportunity to hear first-hand about the reactions to these policies, from users with disabilities and members of the Web industry. The workshop will also encourage the harmonisation of good practices all over Europe .

The following topics will be covered in the workshop:

• Legislations
• International recommendations and standards
• E-Accessibility assessment
• E-accessibility as part of a quality assurance process
• Quality Marks
• User involvement
• Industrial approach
• European harmonization

The workshop will answer questions like :

• How legislation.s differ all around Europe ? How do they refer to international recommendations and standards ?
• How to foster European harmonisation ?
• What measures should support laws in favour of e-accessibility ?
• How to encourage purchasers to include accessibility requirements in call for tenders (training, technical reference document, toolkits for public procurement, Quality Mark ... )
• What is the industrial cost of accessibility ?
• Is E-accessibility as part of a quality assurance ?
• Can e-Accessibility be assessed and certified ?
• How take into account users. experience feedback, including persons with disabilities ?

Organisation

The workshop is organised jointly by

• la Cité des sciences et de l'industrie
• EdeAN-France (European Design for All e-Accessibility Network);
• Association BrailleNet

with support of two European Specific Support Actions : Support-EAM and CWST

Venue