Un sondage Européen sur l'accessibilité des sites internet (anglais)

L'Union Européenne lance un sondage en ligne pour obtenir un feed-back sur l'accessibilité des sites internet.

Lien vers le sondage en ligne

The European Commission wants to explore a common European approach for web accessibility for the three following reasons: 1) Disabled users continue to face great difficulties accessing websites: The development of the information society has led to the creation of websites and online services that are an essential part of daily life for many citizens. Yet significant numbers of people, including people with disabilities, continue to encounter difficulties using these websites due to accessibility barriers, despite technical solutions existing to overcome these barriers.

2) Divergent policy approaches to web accessibility in the Member States are fragmenting the market: An increasing number of countries, including EU Member States, are taking action to improve web accessibility, including through legal obligations. However, the existing divergence of national approaches is leading to increased fragmentation in the internal market. This fragmentation provokes legal uncertainty, particularly for technology providers, and makes it difficult for persons with disabilities to use online services freely across Europe.

3) Previous commitments and current opportunities: The institutions of the European Union have considered web accessibility in recent years (see ref.) and EU Member States have committed to improve web accessibility. In particular, the "Ministerial Declaration on an inclusive information society" (Riga, June 2006) included the commitment to make all public websites accessible by 2010. Despite the efforts deployed, we are still far from achieving this target (see ref.). It seems therefore appropriate to mobilise the EU Member States and relevant stakeholders to improve the situation, even though there are no web accessibility standards approved at the EU level yet (see ref.).

e-Accessibility relates to the use of any Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by people with disabilities and other people with functional limitations, be they permanent or temporary. Despite various interventions by stakeholders including industry operators, authorities and user organisations, the overall level of e-accessibility in Europe remains relatively poor (e.g. for television, or self-service terminals) (see ref.).