The CEN Workshop Agreement n°15554 is available on the CEN Web site (page "Design for all in ICT").
The report is available in PDF on the Documents page (deliverable D3.5).
The CEN Workshop "Specifications for a complete European Web Accessibility Certification Scheme and a Quality Mark" has been initiated by the Support EAM project in April 2004. Its objective was to get an agreement on the Specifications for a complete European Web Accessibility Certification Scheme and a Quality Mark. This has been achieved and the resulting document (so-called CWA) will be soon published online by the CEN.
This questionnaire is part of the work of the CEN/ISSS Workshop on "Specifications for a complete European Web Accessibility Certification Scheme and a Quality Mark" initiated by the Support EAM project. The objective of this workshop is to reach a CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) on the specifications of a certification scheme and quality mark for the evaluation of web accessibility. The draft of this CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) has been released on 20 December 2005 within a public call for comments until 20 February 2006.
The questionnaire is closed. Results will be published in March 2006.
The CEN has made public the Draft CWAs for external comment produced by the CEN Workshop "Specifications for a complete European Web Accessibility Certification Scheme and a Quality Mark".
It is CEN/ISSS's policy to submit draft CWAs that are of public interest to an external enquiry to enable interested parties who are not registered participants in the Workshop also to comment on the draft.
The duration of this external enquiry is 60 days (closes 20 February).
The comments will constitute a valuable input for better understanding the needs of stakeholders. They will influence accordingly the final writting of the CWA.
Anybody is encouraged you to circulate this information and invite respondents to this inquiry available.
More information on the Electronic Committee of the WAC CEN/ISSS workshop.
More information on the Electronic Committee of the WAC CEN/ISSS workshop.
A new CEN/ISSS Workshop (WS/WAC) will be established to obtain a first level European agreement on a European certification scheme concerning the delivery of a Quality Mark for Web Accessibility. Such a scheme has previously been investigated by an EC IST project (Support-EAM), part of a cluster of projects (WAB cluster) which is defining an overall European methodology for assessing web accessibility in conformance with W3C WAI content guidelines.
The purpose of the Workshop is to reach a CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) on specifications for a complete European certification scheme concerning the delivery of a Quality Mark for Web Content Accessibility. Such a European Quality Mark for Web Accessibility makes possible to identify if a Web Site is compliant or not to the existing content guidelines of W3C/WAI. In addition to stimulating the take up of web accessibility, it will also simplify the task of web site owners and corresponding industry across Europe by providing a unique labelling rather than a fragmentation of this process.
This European Quality Mark is based on the use of a methodology for assessing Web Accessibility within a European certification scheme. The methodology is the Unified Web Accessibility Evaluation Methodology - UWEM, currently designed by the Support-EAM and the other WAB cluster projects.
This European certification scheme runs from the accreditation of local assessment bodies by a European authority, to the delivery by these local bodies of a Quality Mark for Web Accessibility using a certification management process.
The CWA focuses on getting a first level European agreement on specifications for a complete European certification scheme for web content accessibility (accreditation, certification management process, code of practice of the Quality Mark, control mechanisms). These specifications will be designed for use in the context of third party certification schemes, but may be used for the purpose of self-declaration. They will be based on an analysis of the existing European marking schemes, and their possible applicability to the specific case of web site accessibility.
Business Plan, registration fees (1000 euros), Agenda of the kick-off meeting (14 April 2005 at Brussels), ... : all information and online registration (it is required both for the Workshop and for the kick-off meeting) are available on the WAC/WS CEN Workshop Web site.
For questions on the CEN Workshop about Web accessibility certification (WAC), please contact us.
All information is available on the CEN Web site.
The e-Europe programme, "eEurope 2005: an information society for all" calls upon Member States and invites the Commission to tap the Information Society's potential for people with disabilities, and tackle the removal of technical barriers for their effective participation in the Knowledge Economy and Society. It also encourages the adoption of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) WAI Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which are an important tool for ensuring that web sites are surely accessible. Member States have adopted these guidelines for the content of their public sites, but implementation takes time and the need emerges to check compliance.
Making the thousands of applicable Web services (both public and private) accessible within the next few years will require a major effort across Europe, in terms of practical implementation and R&D. There will be a need for new WAI accessibility standards for 'cutting edge' technologies, new technical solutions for existing technologies, new access technologies for people with disabilities, new web content authoring tools (which automatically create accessible content) and new tools for accessing web content. However, to achieve the best results, all of this must be prepared in light of a better understanding of how web accessibility should be implemented and assessed in harmony all over Europe. This is now more important than ever, as more and more initiatives within different countries are leading to further divergence in people's understanding of what is considered to be accessible.
In the first relevant call of the 6th RTD Framework Programme (end-2003) and in the domain of web accessibility monitoring, the European Commission retained 3 good proposals for funding. They have been grouped together in a cluster called Web Accessibility Benchmarking (WAB) and the Support-EAM specific support action is one of them. Although each project has also its own goals, the cluster as a whole is focusing on delivering a Unified Web Accessibility Evaluation Methodology (UWEM) complementing the WAI WCAG material, to satisfy the European need expressed above. The two other projects, EIAO and BenToWeb, are respectively investigating a prototype of an Web Accessibility observatory and tools for complex accessibility criteria together with test suites for tools verification.
In addition to its cluster participation, the Support-EAM project (FP6 IST 004754, www.support-eam.org) aims to create an e-Accessibility Quality Mark for Web services by the end of 2005. This will contribute to the goals of the Action Plan "eEurope 2005: An information society for all". In fact this clearly refers to the Council Resolution on "e-Accessibility" - improving the access of people with disabilities to the Knowledge Based Society (doc. 5165/03), inviting the Commission and the member states "to consider the provision of an "eAccessibility mark" for goods and services which comply with relevant standards for eAccessibility". This was also later specified in the Crete e-Inclusion Ministerial Declaration, asking for a web accessibility mark.
In order to get consensus-based specifications on this e-Accessibility Quality Mark for Web services, the Support-EAM project asked CEN (European Committee for Standardization) to launch a CEN/ISS Workshop.
