Designing accessible Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) enable people with disabilities and older people to use and benefit from new technologies in the same way as everyone else. Harmonising the requirements for accessible ICT products and services also facilitates the work of industry, while increasing buyers’ satisfaction. For this reason, the European Commission Mandate 376 required the European Standardisation Bodies (CEN, CENELEC and ETSI) to produce a European Standard on accessibility requirements for ICT in order to help public authorities, but also companies and organisations, ensure accessible products and services.
In collaboration with an international team of experts, the ICT industry and organizations representing consumers, people with disabilities and older persons, the European Standardisation Bodies published the European Standard in February 2014. Since October 2014, a toolkit (Accessible ICT Procurement Toolkit) has also been made available online to help public authorities and other public sector bodies during procurement, to ensure that websites, software and digital devices are more accessible.
The Accessible ICT Procurement Toolkit provides structured access and guidance on how to consider accessibility in the four stages of procurement: writing a call for tenders, evaluating tenders, evaluating deliverables and managing contracts. Key elements of the Toolkit are the ‘Accessibility Requirements Generator’ which will help procurers to define their accessibility requirements and the video tutorial which describes how to use the Toolkit.
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For any questions or suggestions for how the Toolkit could be improved, please write toaccessibility@aenor.es