EASIT: Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training
This is unit 1, Media Accessibility;
element 2, What is accessibility?
video lecture, "Accessibility legislation".
I am Anna Matamala, from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
and in this short lecture I will talk about accessibility legislation,
focusing on the European context.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
establishes in its Article 4, General obligations,
that state parties undertake to, and I quote,
"adopt all appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures
for the implementation of the rights recognized in the present Convention"
and to "take all appropriate measures, including legislation,
to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices
that constitute discrimination against persons with disabilities".
At a European level, the European Accessibility Act
has been a "landmark agreement reached after decade-long campaigning
by the European disability movement",
as EDF, the European Disability Forum, expresses on its webpage.
The full official title of the European Accessibility Act is
"Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament
and of the Council of 17 April 2019
on the accessibility requirements for products and services".
It was published on 7 June 2019 in the Official Journal of the EU.
It is a directive, not a regulation.
This means that it does not become law in all member states
but, from its publication date national governments
have a transposition period of three years
to turn or transfer its content into national law.
I invite you to read the analysis of the Act by EDF,
available on their website.
I will be summarizing it in this video.
The European Accessibility Act sets accessibility requirements
on different products and services.
Products include
computer and their operating systems,
payment terminals,
self-service terminals related to the services
covered by the legislation,
consumer terminal equipment
used for electronic communication services such as smartphones,
consumer terminal equipment used for accessing audiovisual media services,
such as smart TVs
and E-readers.
Services include
electronic communication services, such as telephony,
services providing access to audiovisual media services,
certain elements in passenger transport services, such as websites,
mobile apps, electronic ticketing,
real-time travel information, interactive self-service terminals.
consumer banking services,
e-books,
e-commerce
and the European emergency number 112.
EDF highlights that one of the greatest achievements of the Act
is that the accessibility requirements for these products and services
are mandatory for public procurement,
that is, when governments or state-owned companies acquire products and services.
Another important aspect is that Disabled Persons' Organisations
(DPOs, for short)
will work with national authorities and relevant stakeholders
and the European Commission
to advise them when implementing and reviewing the Act.
However, EDF also considers that one of the drawbacks
is that some services and products were left out of the Act:
health care services, education, transport,
housing and household appliances.
Within the realm of audiovisual media,
the European Accessibility Act focuses on the services
providing access to audiovisual media services,
such as websites, online applications,
set-top box-based applications,
mobile applications, media players,
connected television services, etc.,
but it does not regulate the accessibility of audiovisual media services.
This is the object of the so-called Audiovisual Media Services Directive,
which I summarise in another video lecture.
I will not provide specific information on national laws,
but I recommend you to check the specific legislation
that your country has in place.
This video lecture has been prepared by Anna Matamala,
from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
You can reach me at anna.matamala@uab.cat.
Pictures:
Smart icons for accessibility services by DR Design.
Other pictures source:
pixabay.com, publicdomainvectors.org,
pixels.com.
License: Pixabay License, CC0,
Pexels License.
The project EASIT has received funding
from the European Commission
under the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships
for Higher Education programme,
grant agreement 2018-1-ES01-KA203-05275.
The European Commission support for the production of this publication
does not constitute an endorsement of the contents,
which reflect the views only of the authors,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible
for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Partners of the EASIT project:
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona,
Università degli Studi di Trieste,
Universidade de Vigo,
Stiftung Universität Hildesheim,
SDI München,
Dyslexiförbundet,
Radiotelevisija Slovenija,
Zavod Risa.
EASIT: Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training