Hello everybody Ryan Bateman here from Deque Systems and the marketing team here
I'm here with our esteemed guest Shadi who I'll ask to introduce himself
in a moment but we're here today just to record a brief conversation talking
about EN 301 549 and I'd like to get from Shadi a little bit of advice and
insight into what it is, and specifically how we can help US businesses prepare
and and get involved. And of course bottom-line be more accessible, and more
so in Europe. So Shadi, if you would please tell us a little bit about
yourself. Hi everyone so yeah my name is Shadi Abu Zahra I work for the World
Wide Web Consortium w3c, which is the international standards body that
develops web standards and part of that is the web accessibility initiative WAI,
that focuses on making the web accessible to people with different
kinds of disabilities. Awesome, thanks Shadi so much for for joining us
really. Could you.. let's start general, could you let our audience know
what digital accessibility is if they don't already know? Yeah good question, so
digital accessibility is basically making all the electronic products
accessible and it's I compared very similar to the physical accessibility,
it's the electronic version of a curb cut or a ramp, so basically how do you
make software and web content documents but also hardware in a way that people
different kinds of disabilities can use it. So let me give you an example, for
example providing text alternatives for images so that these can be read out
loud by people using screen readers who cannot see the screen, or captions to
provide the audio alternative for people who cannot hear the content and as we
continue having more digital content and digital products, digital accessibility
is becoming immensely important to include people disabilities
but it also provides benefits for many other people.
Fantastic, thanks Shadi. So let's let's drill down a little bit more
specifically, I think if you could explain maybe first your role in EN 301
549 and then tell us in general; What is it? Do I have to say that whole thing
every time is there is there a nice nickname or shorthand
like like we have for wuh-cag, WCAG? So what is EN 301 549?
Great question yeah, so unfortunately there is no nickname, the actual title of
the document is even longer. I think it's accessibility requirements for
digital for information and communication technologies or something
like this I I don't even remember the title, I'm a bit ashamed
because it's it's actually quite long. So in a nutshell, this is a standard that
covers all ICT, so all digital products really, from a cell phone all the way to
a printer, ATMs and also electronic documents and software and
web. So this is where our role as w3c came in. Our interest is really to
make sure that there is common so called harmonized standards for accessibility.
It really doesn't make sense to have a set of standards in Europe and a set of
standards in the US and the set of standards in other countries you know
the the Internet is global the Internet knows no boundaries and so we need a
common set of accessibility requirements makes the market stronger, it makes it
easier for accessibility. And the w3c web content accessibility guidelines WCAG
has really become the international standard and so part of this EN 301
549, which is the technical requirements for digital
accessibility. The part that covers web is actually WCAG 2.1.
So the requirements in there, will refer you to the web content accessibility
guidelines 2.1. At the same time also the sections in that european standard
for electronic documents, so a document that is not available on the web that
you have a USB Drive or on your computer and for software also
non web software, these also follow WCAG using a w3c working group note called
WCAG to ICT. So basically an interpretation of WCAG for these
context. For example, I'll give you a very simple example if you have requirement
for color contrast, color luminosity ratio to make sure that there is sufficient
contrast between foreground and background between the text and the
background. It really makes sense to apply that not just on websites but also
on say software and electronic documents. it doesn't make sense to have a set of
requirements when you publish your document online but then if you have it
on your hard disk or if you share it you know with your colleagues via the
internet that you then have a separate set of accessibility requirements. So
here we we have as the boundaries between these areas is diminishing,
between software and web and content and so on, we we have now more Universal
standards or more new universal requirements that apply to all these
different types of content. Awesome thank you so much super valuable insight. I
think one thing our audience is going to be concerned about and I think the
reference you made to WCAG is a good one in comparison for local
understanding. Well you know, a lot of us in the US are are used to understanding
what WCAG is. Does that same comparison work when it comes to legal
requirements and compliance how does EN 301 549 affect legal
requirements? Right yeah, it's it's very similar in
different parts of the world. So for example, in the US the Section 508 law,
which is a procurement law, as many of you may know has a technical standards
along with it the technical requirements which by the way also use WCAG refer
to WCAG, also for software and for document so we have the same
requirements now in Europe and in the US and in many other parts of the world.
So it's it's you can imagine the EN 301 549 as this technical standards part
of the u.s. section 508 without the policy aspects, without the legal aspects.
This is separated different member states and also the European Commission
has certain policies that then enforce this technical standard in different
contexts. That's fantastic, what next steps I think would you
recommend that US businesses take? Right so, on the one side there is a lot of
policy progress and developments happening in Europe right now.
For example the EN 201 549 is being used right now by the
so called Web Accessibility Directive. This is a European legislation so it
applies across all European Member States. On public bodies public agencies
being required to adhere to that technical standard and so each of the
Member States so each of the European countries that are part of the European
Union have to, the technical name is transposed, so actually adopt that
European policy into their national legislative framework. And so I think
this is a major change right now a major push that
there is a common set of requirements some European countries already had such
laws in place, others had different kinds of laws, so now there's a more common
definition of the accessibility requirements for different kinds of
public bodies. At the same time right now in the European Parliament there's
progress on the so-called European Accessibility act, the EAA, and you can
imagine that somehow a little bit similar to the ADA.
So it's an anti-discrimination law that would make it also that would apply to
public services and and products you know from private businesses but that
are public in nature. For example banks and Airlines and retail shops.
These kinds of businesses would potentially be addressed by this new
policy. So there's really a lot of progress right now. So accessibility is
becoming more-so important in Europe just like it is in the US. But really one
of the important things to remember is to move away from just the you know the
legal requirement, it's of course important as a driver and to recognize
that access for people with disabilities is is a right under the UN Convention on
the Rights of persons with disabilities. But at the same time really recognize
the business benefits and we have resources, a business case for example,
that explains additional benefits of accessibility.
Again very compared to the curb cut, so as we say you know when you have a curb
cut when you do that so often the the the cost of implementation becomes much
smaller in some cases maybe even negligible, but at the same time it
benefits people using a bicycle, people pushing trollies and so on. It's
the same with with digital accessibility, when I am able to use something let's
say by voice because I have a physical disability and
can only interact with a computer using voice,
it also supports hands-free browsing for example being able to use digital
products you know at home to automate your home to make your lights go on and
off or to turn on after the television. Things like this they're becoming part
of everyday are actually very often start off as assistive technologies. So
what I'm trying to say in a nutshell is that accessibility is innovation, it
provides benefits it improves usability and appeal basically for many more
audiences. So there are many benefits in addition to it being a legal
requirement in many parts around the world. Those those business benefits are
so often overlooked that's fantastic that pointed that out. I want to thank
you very much for your contributions, for for spending time here with me today, and
helping explain this. So thanks again very much. Thank you for having me it's
been a pleasure.