Hello, my name is Loïc Martínez Normand,
I'm a lecturer at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Informáticos
at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
This video is about the history and scope
of the European Public Procurement standard
for Accessible ICT products and services, EN 301 549.
Public Procurement can modify the market.
Public administrations are very important
information and communication technology (or ICT) clients.
Therefore, if they define the rules to be met
by the products they buy,
those rules are transferred to the general market.
Why? Because suppliers cannot afford
to provide solutions for two different markets,
and all their products
will comply with the rules for the public procurement market,
even when they sell to the general public.
This idea can be applied to the field of accessibility
of ICT products and services for people with disabilities.
A public procurement policy requires two components.
First, a law which forces to buy accessible goods.
And secondly, accessibility requirements,
which are normally published in a standard or technical standard.
In Europe, there is the standard EN 301 549
that defines those technical accessibility requirements.
It has taken a long time to develop this standard.
In 2005, the European Commission issued Mandate 376,
intended for the three European standardization bodies:
CEN, CENELEC and ETSI.
After publishing the mandate,
the terms were negotiated and phase 1 of the work began in 2007.
Research on existing accessibility requirements was carried out,
as well as on mechanisms to demonstrate
that those requirements were met.
Phase 1 ended in 2009,
and after another period of negotiation,
phase 2 started in 2011.
The standard and additional support material were drafted at this stage.
The standard EN 301 549 v.1.1.1. was published in 2014
and a year later, errata corrected,
a new version, v.1.1.2. was published.
What ICT products and services does the standard EN 301 549 address?
The answer is that it applies to any ICT product or service,
both hardware and software.
Thus, it can be applied to a mobile phone,
a Web page, a mobile application,
an ATM, a personal computer,
Or even a mobile communications service.
But there are two special situations
where you can not apply the standard requirements.
First, if the product is broken,
in repair or maintenance.
Secondly, in the start or close up phases,
when these phases can be performed
without the intervention of the user.
What are the contents of the standard EN 301 549?
Let's start by looking at its structure.
It follows the usual structure of a European technical standard.
It begins with an introduction, scope,
bibliographic references and definitions and abbreviations.
Chapter 4 contains the user needs,
described as statements for functional performance.
Then, chapters 5 to 13 contain the requirements of the standard.
Finally, the annexes contain
the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0),
the relationship between functional benefit and requirements,
and the evaluation process for each requirement.
Let's see what
the functional performance statements are,
that is to say, the user needs.
11 user needs were defined,
these are not requirements, but expressions of what
people with disabilities need when using ICT products.
There are three needs related to vision:
Use without vision with limited vision or without perception of colour.
Then, two about hearing:
Use without hearing or with limited hearing.
The sixth is related to use without being able to speak.
Then, there are two needs related to movement:
Usage with limited manipulation or strength, or with limited reach.
Finally, there are:
The need to minimize problems concerning photosensitive epilepsy,
use with limited cognition
and the right to maintain privacy.
Given the diversity of ICT products,
all these user needs have application circumstances.
For example, 4.2.1, usage without vision,
only applies if the product has visual interaction.
Let's now have a look at the accessibility requirements.
The first thing to know is how they have been organized.
The original idea was to organize requirements
by ICT product categories,
e.g. mobile phones, personal computers, web pages.
But it was noted that this structure was not viable,
because of the current convergence:
For example, a modern mobile phone can perform the functions
carried out by a personal computer or a video camera.
Therefore, a functional approach was applied:
The requirements are grouped by functions or features,
rather than by commercial categories.
So, the standard may be applied
to any ICT product or service, present or future.
Thus 9 groups of features or functions are defined in the standard,
with 213 requirements,
these contain the verb "must",
and 26 recommendations, with the verb "should".
Chapter 5 of EN 301 549 contains generic requirements
which apply to any combination of hardware and software.
Chapter 6 applies to systems
that provide bidirectional communication in voice and video,
such as phones and teleconferencing applications.
Chapter 7 contains references
for systems with display,
transmission or video recording capability.
Chapter 8 applies to hardware components
of an ICT product or system.
Chapters 9 to 11 are dedicated respectively to web,
non-web documents and software.
The three chapters have a common basis, which is WCAG 2.0.
Chapter 11 has, additionally, other requirements
that apply to any type of software.
Finally, Chapter 12 defines requirements
for documentation and customer service,
and Chapter 13 for relay and emergency services.
Another video will deal with the content of these chapters,
applied to examples for ICT products and services.
In short, today we have seen:
That public procurement
can support accessibility for people with disabilities,
but standards are needed
to define accessibility requirements.
In Europe, there is the standard EN 301 549,
which defines accessibility requirements
for any ICT product or service.
It has 11 user needs, 213 requirements and 26 recommendations.