EU agrees better access to public sector websites and apps

Photo © Anatoly Vartanov – Fotolia

(BRUSSELS) – Public sector bodies’ websites and mobile applications will have to offer improved access for disabled and elderly people, under a provisional deal struck by Parliament and Council negotiators.

Around 80 million people in the EU are affected by a disability. As the EU population ages, the figure is expected to increase to 120 million by 2020. This can prevent them accessing data and services on the Internet, e.g. to file a tax declaration, apply for an allowance, pay fees or register a child at school.

Parliament’s lead negotiator, Dita Charanzova, welcomed the vote: “I think it is a disgrace that many persons with disabilities are, in the 21st century, still cut off from information on the Internet. Inaccessibility belongs in digital prehistory, not in today’s world.”

The Directive will cover public sector bodies’ websites and mobile apps, from administrations, courts and police departments to public hospitals, universities and libraries. It will make them accessible for all citizens – in particular for the blind, the hard of hearing, the deaf, and those with low vision and with functional disabilities.

The agreed text of the Directive:

covers websites and mobile apps of public sector bodies with a limited number of exceptions (e.g. broadcasters, livestreaming).
refers to the standards to make websites and mobile apps more accessible. For example, such standards foresee that there should be a text for images or that websites can be browsed without a mouse which can be difficult to use for some people with disabilities.
requires regular monitoring and reporting of public sector websites and mobile apps by Member States. These reports have to be communicated to the Commission and to be made public. The Directive on web accessibility along with the European Accessibility Act proposed in December 2015 which covers a much wider number of products and services, are both part of the efforts of the Commission to help people with disabilities to participate fully in society.