21st May 2015 was the 4th annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day. To help promote that day and raise awareness of digital accessibility and how to contribute, Citizens Online – a UK national charity promoting digital inclusion – collaborated with the Digital Accessibility Centre, DIG Inclusion, and members of their Fix the Web project‘s steering group to create a short animated video about digital accessibility. The film contains 15 tips to help people creating websites, apps, software and documents improve the accessibility of their technology.
The video can be viewed on: https://www.citizensonline.org.uk/accessibilitytips/
Another video produced by UX Mastery in partnership with Accessibility Bytes has also been issued to mark that international Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ic8OO4ORI8
Accessibility, mobility and new technologies are key components to enable older people to be actively involved in society, to age healthier and to remain independent while at the same time alleviate the impact of demographic ageing on care systems. AGE Platform Europe is working to raise visibility of these issues at EU level. Read more on our work on accessibility here.
In April, we issued jointly with the European Disability Forum (EDF) a number of recommendations to ensure the Digital Single Market strategy currently being prepared by the European Commission will be inclusive of all whatever their age or capacity.
We have also been calling for the Accessibility Act, promised by the European Commission in 2012, to be published. This directive would seek to make the market of goods and services accessible for persons with disabilities and elderly persons, based on a “design for all” approach and including binding measures to promote procurement and harmonisation of accessibility standards. In 2012 we replied to an EU consultation on that issue.