Time: 2011-10-28
Venue: DIAMANT conference centre, Brussels
Standards Norway Rapporteur: Rudolph Brynn
09:30 – 9:45 Welcome & Opening remarks
Mr. Matthias Schneider, Chair of the eAccessibility JWG, Ms. Cristina Rodríguez-Porrero and Mr. Óscar Querol, Vice-Chairs of the eAccessibility JWG
9:45 – 10:00 Review of legislation related to public procurement in Europe
Ms. Immaculada Placencia Porrero and Ms. Martina Sindelar,
European Commission.
On the European Disability Strategy. Accessibility and UNCRPD is an important basis for EU which has ratified it. In particular Articles 3 and 9 are important. Key actions include study of cost benefit of improving accessibility on EU level etc. The problem is that there is not enough accessible goods and services in the European market, and that the markets are fragmented. There are steps towards a European accessibility act – launch of a cost/benefit analysis and data collection on accessibility of goods and services on ICT; a consultation with civil society and to present a report in 2012. Objectives include to create economies of scale; remedy market failures and to improve the availability in the market of accessible goods and services. The cost benefit study was published July 2011 and closed 29 August. A winner will be pronounced soon. It will be a certain antidiscrimination perspective (conceptual framework; problem definition, justification for EU action, objectives definition, policy options, analysis of impacts and to compare the options).
Initial list of policy options:
• No policy changes
• No EU action
• Non-legislative options
o Voluntary response etc.
Legislative options:
• Legislation for public procurement and compulsory purchasing og accessible goods and services
• Framework directives on general accessibility obligations
• Regulations on the same
• Combination of the first two bulletpoints
Consultations
• Eurobarometer (after summer)
• Sociodemocraphic questions
• Disaggregated by disability
• Perception and experience of accessibility problems, participation and impact on life activities and independency
• On line (autumn) consultation where everybody can participate
Others:
• Completing the legal framework of the equal opportunity directive of 2000
• Mandate 473 has been accepted and is developed
• Structural Funds General regulation: Article 16 on accessibility is revised.
• Green paper on the future of public procurement directive.
10:00 – 10:15 eAccessibility – review of legislation in USA
Mr. David Capozzi - Representative from USA Access Board.
Joint update of section 508 standards for electronic and information technology (procured by federal agencies). Section 255 guidelines for telecommunications products are combined. Revisions are needed for clarification and technical assistance regarding what products are covered; ambiguity in coverage and desire for increase in testability. The telecommunications provisions in the section 508 standards are based on, and are consistent with the boards Telecommunications act accessibility guidelines. This act apply to manufacturers. They shall ensure that the equipment is designed to be accessible for all. The Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards apply to Federal authorities. Advisory Committee report from 2008, advance notice of proposed rulemaking 2010 and public hearings – next step is second advance notice. Comments: Organisations of standard is now improved but could be better; what about mobile technology?
At its meeting in July 2011 the board approved a motion to place the latest draft of the ICT requirements in the rulemaking docket once the Board’s ad hoc committee completed its work on the draft, which was expected to be the end of September. The Board did this to facilitate collecting cost information and promote harmonization with standards efforts in Europe. Unfortunately their work was not completed when expected, however work will be completed before Board’s next meeting November 9th. The next version will be and Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; a public comment period will be provided on the ANPRM. This ANPRM will make changes in content and structure from the first ANPRM that was issued in March 2010. We expect that it will be published in the Federal Register and made available on our website Regulations.gov in early December.
Notice of proposed rulemaking will take up a cost/benefit analysis; submit to OMB (90 days) and publish in Federal Register (30 days comment period). Final Rule will include Regulatory assessment, submit to OMB (90 days) and publish in Register. No later than 6 months after the Access Board revises any standards (under section 508) under the Federal Acquisition Regulations. The FCC rules under section 255.
10:45 – 11:35 European standard to include accessibility requirements in public procurement of ICT goods and services
Mr. Mike Pluke, ETSI Specialist Task Force Leader.
Mr. Walter Mellors, ETSI Specialist Task Force.
Deliverables include accessibility requirements for public procurement of ICT, documents and guidelines. The EN 301 549 standard will contain the specification of the functional accessibility requirements applicable to ICT products and services and take into consideration the relevant work of a number of relevant organizations. The current version (Distributed today) takes on board comments received on last version. Requirements are 85 % complete, compliance 20 % complete, some requirements drafted but still to agree in STF, WCAG 2.0 will be electronic pdf attachment as an Annex and in future they will harmonise with section 508.
Current section 508 ANPRM is:
Chapter 1: Application and administration
Chapter 2: Functional performance criteria
Chapter 3: Common functionality
Chapter 4: Platforms, applications and interactive content
Chapter 5: Electronic documents
Chapter 6: Sychronised media content and players
Etc.
This standard is organized as current Section 508 but with major renumbering etc.
TR 101 550 Documents relevant to accessibility requirements for public procurement has had some progress, the structure is amended to avoid mechanical repetition of references. They leave details to TR 102 612 from Phase 1 work, it only deals with exceptions. So far no test gaps to report, or found no temporary guidance found necessary and so far no new technologies requiring test research.
TR 101 551 Guidelines on accessibility aeard criteria for ICT products and services in Europe. This TR will give guidance to procurers on the award criteria relevant to each area of user needs in the procurement of ICT products and services. It is require to produce guidelines on accessibility award criteria that are relevant to each technical area that can be used in public procurement. This work would require close cooperation with the authors of the EN, at all stages and it is probable that it could not be commenced until an early draft of the EN was available.
Equality through interoperability? The UN Convention has an underlying theme of accessibility. Most users can communicate anywhere in the world using voice communication, irrespective who provides their telephones. Interoperability can be achieved through cloud technology, users who download software clients for services A and B (or multi-service software clients) can communicate with many users. Section 508 states an interoperability requirement. Is interoperability too early for EN? Given the uncertainty on what type of interoperability is most important (between RTT systems or with mainstream systems, the scarcity of RTT systems and the general immaturity if the RTT market, as well as there is no global consensus on an interoperability standard, it is not yet appropriate to require and RTT interoperability solution.
Time scale: One awaited the new version of the section 508 ANPRM but this is delayed. One can await this and pause the progress of the M376 work (3-4 months) or ignore the US revision, which the work team will not recommend. Comments can be sent on the drafts to www.mandate376-eu.
11:35 – 12:00 Questions & Answers
Comments:
EC: It is agreed that the Section 508 is necessary but a delay requires a amendment of the EC contract for the JWG group. This is understood by the project team, also that no further resources are available even if the Commission agrees to a postponements pending the US document. The risk of not awaiting Section 508 makes it counterproductive to continue.
It is very important that industry’s concerns are taken into consideration or else the standard can be voted down – additional service obligations without participation in the process of developing the EN will endanger the process.
The W3C is working on evaluation methodologies but non have broad consensus – and this must also be elaborated on regarding the evaluation part of the M376 work.
There already exist standards on emergency service sites etc. and these should be used for the interoperability clauses. It is not correct to state by the work team that there is no global consensus on an interoperability standard.
Maggie Ellis: People are complaining that the documentation is not freely available. Answer: All ETSI documents are freely available, and also the
CEN Guide 6 revised version will be available.
12:00 – 12:30 Online toolkit and support material
Mr. José Ángel Martínez Usero, CEN Project Team leader.
The toolkit will provide structured acces to the EN and to the reports and to support and guidance material. The EN is also important for the CEN team.
Their deliverables are:
• D4 TR conformity documents
• D5 The toolkit
• D6 guidance and support material
Scope of the toolkit: Main users will be public procurers, but also it will respond to the needs of ICT industry, end users etc. The approach is to align with future business models and procurement strategies and the toolkit will also align with modern procurement practices. They look at different toolkits in USA, Canada, Ireland, Norway and Denmark. Then gathered user requirements and worked on methodological and technical approach to developing the new toolkit. There has been a discussion on the integration of different information products and how it will look like.
It introduces lessons learned from the analysis of current ICT accessibility toolkits for the development of the European toolkit. It describes the current procurement environment in which procurers operate.
A comparative table of existing toolkits has been made.
• Geographic scope
• Thematic scope
• Main orientation
• Main audience
• Secondary audience
• Tasks covered
• Main advice
• Cut and paste text for procurers to insert into tender documentation
• Provide templates for use by ICT suppliers/ manufacturers
• Quick links or packaged info for specific items
• Feedback from users
• Search by technology
• Browse by technology
• Structured classifications
• Toolkit maintained and updated
• Accessible web-based application
• Toolkit supported by Web 2.0 applications
User requirement gathering though a first iteration of personal interviews with a validation group of 8-10 procurers. Second iteration was with an extended group of 20-30 procurers from different Member States. The result is a set of requirements and the toolkit will be developed following a combined approach in which resources and advise are provided in both a technology and a process oriented way.
Contents will be
• About the online toolkit
o History
o Contact information
o Background to policy
• Procuring accessible ICT
o Identifying and selecting the functional accessibility requirements
o Test for each requirement, based on conformance demonstration clauses in the EN
o Guidance on types of conformity assessments and establishing conformity assessment
o Aspects to be taken into account in the selection evidence
o Guidance on selection of types of evidence
• Guidance for procurers
o Introductory notes
o What is ICT accessibility
o Motivators: Sosial, legal, economical
o Guidance on conformity assessment and declaration
o Guidance on inclusion of accessibility
Etc.
• General guidance on procurement of accessible ICT
o Writing an accessibility policy
o Guidance on the toolkit for suppliers
Etc.
• Ancillary supportive pages
Next steps: Technical specifications in the call for tender and the final contents and structure of the toolkit are negotiated. After that the toolkit must be evaluated (accessibility) as well as the information architecture and products. More info from joseusero@gmail.com.
12:30 – 12:45 Questions & Answers
The notions are very similar and will be difficult to see the difference between them. User testing among procurement staff will be necessary – how will this be achieved?
3 iterations are in the contract with the company developing the toolkit, one of them is user testing.
Is the toolkit to be permanent or just a product of this project?
This is up to the Commission.
13:45 – 14:15 Application of conformity assessment to European accessibility requirements for public procurement ICT goods and services
Mr. Clas Thorèn, CEN Project Team expert.
Conformity assessment is a demonstration that specified requirements relating to a product, process, system or person or body are fulfilled (EN ISO/IEC 17000:2004. It is not evaluation of a quality of a product (like accessibility). Fundamental principle – requirements shall be verifiable. Procurer’s responsibility for conformity assessment is to the business of the procurement body and to the end-users but also to the bidders, for the sake of equal treatment. Procurers’ questions:
How sure do we need to be that the product/service offered in the tender really fulfills the accessibility requirements stated in the call-for-tender?
Which degree of credibility do we need from the tenderer’s claim of fulfillment of requirements?
Statements of conformity
Tic yes or no
Attestation:
• First party declaration
• Supplier’s declaration of conformity (ISO/IEC 17050)
• Second party declaration
• Third party certification
• Accredited third party certification
The principle of proportionality – don’t require more than necessary!
M/376 Deliverable 4
Guidance for the application of conformity assessment to European accessibility requirements for public procurements of ICT products and services.
Chapters:
• Scope
• Normative references
• Terms and definitions
• Conformity assessment scope
• Legal issues
• Types of conformity assessment
• Aspects to be taken into account of selection of evidence
Etc.
What influences the selection of certificate?
• Impact on end-users
• Cost-efficiency of assessment
• Need for interpretation, special competence of measuring
• Type of ICT product or service
Criteria for selection of attestation:
• “Yes” plus description is often sufficient
• Default: first party declaration
• Reasons for considering supplier’s declaration of conformity:
o Considerable disadvantages for end-users in case of non-compliance
o Assessment method critical
o Need for interpretation etc.
Criteria for considering
• For second party declaration: none
• For third party certification
o High risk factors
o Statutory requirements
For accredited third party certification (apart from CE marking):
• High risk factor
• Statutory requirements
• Serious consequences for end-users in case of non-compliance
Specification of content of certificate – annexes with templates for the different declarations and certifications.
Conformity assessment post-award:
• Services, e.g. telecom, outsourcing
• Accessibility should be maintained in case of updating and upgrading
• Requirements as in call-for-tender
• To be regulated in the contract
• Not regulated in the Procurement Directives
14:15 – 14:30 Questions & Answers
What are concrete high risk factors calling for third party certification? This must be given more concrete examples for procurers to understand.
Example: If someone’s social obligations cannot be fulfilled because of inaccessible software – a tax declaration on on-line forms is incorrectly completed because of inaccessible forms. It is important that more examples are presented when the document is out for comments.
It should be emphasized that requirements of accessibility should be part of the whole procurement chain, not only in planning the call-for-tender, but also in the evaluation of offers, the contract negotiations, and the evaluation after deliverable has been made (inspection).
14:30 – 16:00 Next steps – discussion moderated by Mr. Matthias Schneider
- Ms. Nadège Riche, representative of the European Disability Forum. The EDF is running a Freedom of Movement Top Campaign and a campaign together with AGE. The main European framework consists of Europe 2020 and Digital Agenda for Europe actions; the United Nations Convention and the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020. The role of public procurement is essential: 19 percent of EU GDP is in this market, which is ruled by EU legislation on Public Procurement. The M376 deliverables must be starting from the requirements of users (persons with disabilities and elderly people but also people in a disabling situation.
- Mr. Mark Magennis, representative of European Association for the Coordination of Consumer Representation in Standardization. Standardisation reduces the number of small markets and increases the possibilities for all consumers to have accessible goods and services. The EN standard should be wide-ranging, user centered, based on functional criteria, promote understanding of user needs, motivate procurers and providers, give assistance in universal design, including user involvement and highlight process, maintenance and skills.
- Mr Thorsten Katzmann, Representative of DigitalEurope. This is an industry association, including IBM and national associations. Standards should be globally harmonized, open , consensual and objective. Globally harmonized standards are important to specify technical requirements and to integrate technological advances. They support self-declaration as the preferred method as the producers must understand the content of the requirements of e.g. accessibility but also to have a degree of flexibility to find innovative solutions. One Supplier’s self declaration should be valid all over the world. They are concerned of the low participation of concerned groups, the time schedule of the work, the handling of selection and award assessments especially in complex projects. They also support the integration into the procurement process like the inputs required to start the process.
- Mr. Ken Salaets, Information Technology Industry Council (USA). US started a similar activity 10 years ago. Standards were adapted by the Standards Board to be used by Federal authorities and the ITI Council is therefore constantly busy implementing accessibility requirements. The requirements for energy efficiency – the requirements made by the Federal authorities is a parallel as it states good targets for environmental concerns, but the requirements have not been referred regarding local conditions and so the regulations are not of benefit for the end-users, the environment. So consultation with all stakeholders is necessary.
16:00 Closure of the meeting
A clear definition is missing from the scope to make clear that the standard is to the benefit of all, not only disabled people. The scope must be equal access for all to ICT goods and services. Also definitions of Design of All and accessibility should be included.