Commission takes the lead in disability awareness on the Internet
The European Commission has drawn up a Communication which aims to make public websites more user-friendly for disabled people. As part of the drive to ensure that a move towards an information society does not mean increased levels of social exclusion, the Communication sets out guidelines for website designers and webmasters to increase the accessibility of websites for disabled people. The guidelines were drawn up by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), part of the World Wide Web consortium, with the support of European Commission's telematics applications research programme, part of the Fourth Framework Programme. They recommend measures such as ensuring that images have a textual explanation attached and ensuring that audiovisual content has appropriate explanations. The Commission emphasised that the guidelines aim to help not just disabled people, but improve the design and usability of websites for everyone. The provisions made in the 'eEurope 2002: accessibility of public websites and their content' Communication should be in place by the end of the year. Referring to Europe's 37 million disabled people, Erkki Liikanen, European Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society, said on 25 September: '[This] 10 per cent of the population have disabilities and cannot access many web pages and sites due to the way they have been built...the Commission is tackling the latter problem through this Communication.' Although the software for making websites compatible with the guidelines is widely available and easy to use, it remains optional and many webmasters are unaware of it. This is one of the issues that the Communication hopes to address. By ensuring that public sites are compatible, the initiative will not only bring many websites into line but will also highlight the changes made so that other websites, such as those in the private sector, can see the benefits. The websites of all the European institutions will be brought into line by the end of the year. Progress on the implementation of the guidelines will be monitored by an 'accessibility for all' expert group which was set up under the eEurope 2002 action plan. Some countries have already taken the initiative to benchmark their own progress in this area, such as Denmark. And Commissioner Liikanen highlighted that he would like to see others follow the lead. 'We certainly consider that organisations receiving public funding from the European institutions or the Member States should be encouraged to make their web sites accessible,' he said. The potential effect of these changes could be significant for the disabled community, according to the president of the European Disability Forum (EDF), Yannis Vardiakastanis. 'Information is vital for all citizens in society in order or enjoy full citizenship and equality,' he said. 'In today's information society, the web is one of the most important channels to communicate, to work, or to buy products. For disabled people, the way web sites are developed can mean the difference between integration and social exclusion.' Finally, Commissioner Liikanen emphasised that he would like to see the issue of website compatibility given a high priority in the near term. 'We believe that there should be a major initiative devoted to achieving overall accessibility of both public and private websites during the year 2003, the European year of the disabled.' Before that, on 3 December, European day of disabled people will be celebrated with two events organised by the European Commission. The 'breaking barriers awards' will take place in Brussels and will give three awards for best practice in design in home, work and travel categories. The same day will see a round table conference organised featuring Anna Diamantopoulou, European Commissioner for Social Affairs and Employment, along with senior representatives from the worlds of design and disability.