Speaker's information
Pierre GUILLOU manages the Web Accessibility Department in BrailleNet since
February 2003 and he is the Project Manager of the Support-EAM project. He got
a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in the university of Georgia
Tech (USA, December 1995).
Information sur l'auteur
Pierre GUILLOU dirige le département d'accessibilité du Web de l'association BrailleNet depuis Février 2003 et il est le Project Manager du projet Support-EAM. Il est diplômé de l'Université de Georgia Tech (Master of Science, USA, Décembre 1995).
Short paper
An Information Society for All
All over the world, the policies in favour of equal access and participation for all in the Information Society consider the Web accessibility as a key issue for the social inclusion of people with disabilities. In 2001, the European Commission has recommended to follow the WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for a better accessibility of the public Web sites. Furthermore, the "e-Europe 2005: an information society for all" calls upon member states and invites the Commission to tap the Information Society's potential for people with disabilities.
Thus, progressively the Member States have passed laws in this area, directly or indirectly referring to the WCAG (for example: France, Germany, Italy, the United-Kingdom).
In general, the adoption of laws concerning Web accessibility has been preceded or prepared by campaigns conducted by non governmental organizations for months or years. These organizations have initiated awareness conferences, projects and expert training. They have created WCAG conformance assessment suites, published results of large scale evaluation, set up user testing involving people with disabilities. Some have created labels in order to guaranty their work, and started to shape certification processes through national Quality Mark for Web accessibility, like the Bartiméus Accessibility Foundation in the Netherlands or the BrailleNet Association with help of the "Agence pour le Développement de l'Administration Electronique" (ADAE) in France.
The dynamic of these initiatives has undoubtly - and impressively - raised the expertise in Europe about Web accessibility. Nevertheless, their diversity, illustrated by an increasing number of national labels, could have a negative impact on eInclusion in Europe. In fact, the lack of harmonization could lead to a damageable fragmentation whose consequences would be:
- To lower the applicability of national laws.
- To stop the efforts of the Web industry to include e-accessibility as a quality criteria in their production processes.
- To weaken the industry of authoring tools for creating accessible Web pages.
- To deprive national practices of an European visibility.
The Support-EAM Project : an European Quality Mark to Strengthen eAccessibility
In 2003, the Council Resolution on "eAccessibility" - improving the access of people with disabilities to the Knowledge Based Society (doc. 5165/03) - invited the Commission and the member states "to consider the provision of an "eAccessibility mark" for goods and services which comply with relevant standards for eAccessibility". The reason is that an European Quality Mark would have positive effects against fragmentation and would encourage eAccessibility:
- A Quality Mark can not be set up without the adoption of common definitions, methods and procedures to attribute the mark. Thus, a Quality Mark is an important step towards standardisation.
- A Quality Mark corresponds to well defined and repeatable criteria. Thus, it can be attributed by independent inspection organizations. This constitutes a better guaranty for consumers.
- A Quality Mark makes more visible and better rewarded the efforts of the service providers/developers.
- A Quality Mark coherent with the W3C/WAI will constitute a normative reference for implementing national legislations.
- A Quality Mark supports the competitiveness of IT companies, by providing the documents, methodologies and complementary services they need regarding eAccessibility.
The Support-EAM project was set up to prepare the creation of such a Quality mark and to explore potential services based on it, like training, accreditation or certification. Indeed, the aim of the Support-EAM is to create an eAccessibility Quality Mark for Web services by the end of 2005, as part of the Action Plan eEurope 2005: An information society for all. The duration of the project is 18 months, from October 2004 to March 2006. These objectives are:
- To harmonize the methodologies used for evaluating Web Accessibility (from single-site to large-scale benchmarking). This methodology will be validated by experts from two other IST projects, namely BentoWeb and EIAO - which together with Support-EAM constitute what is known as the WAB (Web Accessibility Benchmarking) Cluster. The result will be referred to as the "Unified Web Evaluation Methodology" (UWEM). All the methodological material produced by the Support-EAM project will be open source. This will constitute a standard technical support for the design of new tools for the evaluation, repair and creation of Web sites.
- To create an eAccessibility Quality Mark based on this evaluation methodology and to set up the mechanisms to support and maintain it, by means of a European Authority. The project will go through a European survey on Stakeholders' needs about a Web Accessibility Quality Mark and a CEN/ISSS Workshop to obtain a first level European agreement on a European certification scheme concerning the delivery of a Quality Mark for Web Accessibility.
- To disseminate this Quality Mark by means of regional Helpdesks in Europe.
- The project co-operates with standardization bodies in order to turn the methodology into a real standard that could be enforced through national or international laws.
- Within the WAB cluster, Support-EAM takes an active part in the further development of Version 2 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (produced by W3C/WAI) by active participation in WAI Working Groups.
Conclusion
A Quality Mark will increase the understanding and the expertise concerning Web accessibility in Europe. It will have a positive impact on the quality of life of citizens with disabilities. It will constitute a powerful tool to build up other instruments like benchmarks, observatories, public procurement toolkits, all concerning e-services. It will stimulate national implementations of the WAI guidelines and foster competition between companies towards better services. Thus, it will facilitate the inclusion and integration of people with disabilities, and prevent social exclusion. This is of strategic importance for many aspects of life, like education, employment and social life.
The project Support-EAM is run by:
- Association BrailleNet (France) Coordinator,
- Fundosa Teleservicios (Spain),
- Bartimeus Accessibility Foundation (Netherlands),
- Dublin City University (Ireland),
- Universität Linz (Austria),
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Research & Development (Belgium),
- AccessInMind Ltd (United Kingdom).
