European web accessibility

EN 301549 Compliance - Europ
EU Web Accessibility: WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) EN 301549– According to WCAG 2.0 standards.
In November 2009 the Council authorized the conclusion of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on behalf of the Union (UNCRPD). The UNCRPD has also been signed by all the Member States and it is binding upon the institution of the EU. The Convention identifies accessibility as one of its general principles and states that States Parties shall take appropriate measures to promote access for persons with disabilities to new information and communications technologies and systems, including the Internet.
In December 2008 the Commission adopted the Communication "Towards an Accessible Information Society" proceeded by a public consultation. This Communication reinforces the European Commission`s commitment to web accessibility and calls upon all stakeholders to step up their efforts in this area.

The main enforcement functions are to:

Guarantee compliance of websites and mobile applications with the accessibility requirements,
Look into disproportionate burden cases (that is when a public sector body claims that making certain contents accessible would be an excessive requirement for them).
Review the accessibility statements of public sector bodies` websites and mobile apps.
Guarantee the effective handling of feed-back given by users (both when it is a notification regarding a content that should be accessible and when it is a request for content that is excluded from the accessibility obligations).

WCAG Version Used: WCAG 2.0

Requires WCAG 2.0 Level AA
Date enacted: 2016
Last Updated: 23.09.2020
For more information about the law per European country click here

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