EU to require web accessibility in public procurement
21st June 2006 by Liam McGee
Interesting developments this month in the world of accessibility legislation. The 25 European Commission member states and nine accession countries all signed up to the “Internet for all” action plan this month.
The Commission is studying the possible introduction of mandatory accessibility standards in public procurement, to be brought in by 2010 as well as legislation to improve e-accessibility.
The UK, of course, already has legislation in place (the Disability Discrimination Act), although as yet all web accessibility cases brought under the act have been settled out of court. It is likely that any European legislation will refer to W3C accessibility standards, and their next generation of accessibility guidelines, WCAG2.0, are intended to take this into account, making sure that the guidelines are as unambiguous and testable as possible. More on that another day.