European Accessibility Requirements for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain
(European Commission Standardization Mandate M 376, Phase 2)

Contents

News

2011-12-05 ETSI special task force 416 has released a revised Draft EN "European accessibility requirements for public procurement of ICT products and services" (Word document) for public comment until 31. December 2011.
2011-12-08 The U.S. Access Board has released for public comment a revised draft of updated accessibility requirements (PDF document) for information and communication technology (ICT) covered by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act.
This latest version includes changes made in response to public feedback received on an earlier draft issued last year. The released draft is available for public comment until 7. March 2012.

Background of the Work

European Commission (EC) Mandate M 376 (PDF document) requires the three European standards organisations CEN, CENELEC and ETSI to harmonise and facilitate the public procurement of accessible information and communication technologies (ICT) products and services within Europe. They will identify a set of functional accessibility requirements for public procurement, and then develop an on-line toolkit through which public procurers can access these requirements in a structured way as part of the normal procurement process.

In 2008, Phase 1 of the work produced two reports, ETSI TR 102 612 "Human Factors; European accessibility requirements for public procurement of products and services in the ICT domain" (PDF document), and CEN BTWG 185 & CENELEC BTWG 101-5 Report "Conformity assessment systems and schemes for accessibility requirements" (PDF document). These are used as the foundation of Phase 2.

Current Work

In January 2011 Mandate M 376 Phase 2 started. This phase of the work, co-funded by the European Commission (EC), is managed by a Joint Working Group (JWG) of CEN, CENELEC and ETSI, with AENOR as the Secretariat. The JWG is supported by two teams of experts: an ETSI "Specialist Task Force" and a CEN/CENELEC "Project Team". Together, these expert teams will develop a European Standard (EN), an on-line toolkit and four supporting technical reports, all of which will assist public procurement bodies when acquiring accessible ICT products and services.

Open Workshops

CEN, CENELEC and ETSI held two open workshops on "European Accessibility requirements in public procurement of ICT products and services" in Brussels on 11 May 2011 and 28 October 2011. These were the first and second of a series of three workshops that give stakeholders an opportunity to learn about the work, to discuss the latest drafts of the standards and reports and to give feedback about the work being done. Here are the documents of the first open workshop and the second open workshop.

Participate

Draft documents are periodically announced for information and for comment. Comments received from the previous (August/September) commenting phase on deliverables D1, D2 and D3 have been taken into account and the resolution of these comments can be found in the consolidated comment resolution documents for deliverables D1 (Word document), D2 (Word document) and D3 (Word document).

Currently only one deliverable is out for comment:

This draft incorporates those changes from the previous commenting phase that can be incorporated prior to a significant structural reorganisation. Initial comments are sought on some significant new requirements related to "Reach range for free-standing ICT", "Reach range for installed ICT" (clauses 4.2.6 and 4.2.6.a) and "Relay services" (clauses 4.9.a and 4.9.1) (and their related definitions). No formal responses will be given to the comments received on this draft, but the results of the comments will be reflected in the next draft.

Please send your comments (preferably by 16 December, but no later than 31 December 2011 please) by using this comment form (Word document) to .

There are currently no public drafts of the following deliverables available for commenting. A link is provided to the last public version of each document for information purposes only.

For general comment relating to the above, or to comment on other aspects of the work, please contact us at .

Tentative Time Plan

Date Key Milestone
February 2011 Start of work.
March 2011 Table of Contents and Scope for the standard (EN) and Technical Reports (D1, D2, D3 and D4) available.
11. May 2011 1st Joint Open Workshop (in Brussels) to involve the procurement community in the work.
June 2011 Draft of the standard (EN) and Technical Reports (D1, D2, D3 and D4) containing scope and table of contents released and announced.
July 2011 Initial drafts of the standard (EN) and Technical Reports (D1, D2, D3 and D4) available for comment.
August 2011 The call for tenders to develop the online toolkit (D5) is published.
28. October 2011 2nd Joint Open Workshop (in Brussels) to involve the procurement community in the work.
Under review Stable drafts of D1, the standard (EN), and Technical Reports D2 and D3 available for comment.
Under review Final drafts of D1, the standard (EN), and Technical Reports D2 and D3 available for comment.
Under review Final drafts of D1, the standard (EN), and Technical Reports D2 and D3, to be approved by the CEN/CENELEC/ETSI Joint Working Group (JWG). ETSI Secretariat (editHelp) processes Technical Reports D2 and D3 for publication and D1, the standard (EN), for Public Enquiry (PE).
Under review D1, the standard (EN), is submitted for Public Enquiry. Technical Reports D2, D3 and D4 are published.
Under review Technical Report D6 is published and the draft version of the toolkit (D5) is also released.
Under review Comment resolution and National Standards Organisation (NSO) voting.
Under review D1, the standard (EN), is published.
Under review The final version of the toolkit (D5) is released.

How to Contact Us

You are welcome to send an email related to the work to: .

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