Funka develops recommendations for a monitoring methodology on web accessibility for the European Commission
The European Commission has proposed legislation on web accessibility, the so called web accessibility directive, but no decision has yet been made. The Commission is continuing the preparation with letting a consortium lead by Funka develop recommendations on a methodology to be used to measure compliance in all member states if and when legislation comes true.
It is very interesting to work with indicators on a European level, says Funka’s responsible of Analysis, Andreas Cederbom. We have done this kind of work in Sweden and Norway, but with many countries involved the assignment is much more complex.
The proposed directive states that the enforcement of the future legislation is going to be measured nationally, with a European methodology. This will make it possible to compare development between member states. Historically, benchmarking has been difficult since regulation and monitoring methods differs among countries.
Without re-inventing the wheel
The study is called SMART 2014/0061 Monitoring methodologies for web-accessibility in the European Union. The assignment includes mapping existing national monitoring methods, analysing and comparing them using standardised cross checking and expert evaluation. The aim is to investigate the scope, quality and accountability of the methods, thereby being able to present recommendations on how monitoring could be done in a harmonised way across Europe.
In parallell, user testing with persons with disabilities are being performed on a European level. The interim results of the study was presented at an open workshop in Brussels in November.
Listen to the Web Accessibility Monitoring Workshop online, Adobe Connect, opens in a new window
The project is working closely with national correspondents and an advisory board with high competence in accessibility.
Funded by: European Commission
Consortium: Funka (leader), Empirica and European Disability Forum. Subcontractors: W3C and COWI.
Period: 1 January – 31 December 2015
Budget: 246 400 EURO
Monitoring methodologies for Web Accessibility in the European Union, opens in new window
Project update
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Recommendations for a monitoring methodology
Our report with recommendations on how web accessibility should be monitored in the EU Member States when the new legislation comes into force is now published.