Brussels, 04/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - The joint legislators reached agreement on Tuesday evening 3 May on the final outstanding issues on the directive on web accessibility, including the date of application. Under the terms of the agreement - which still has to be approved by the Parliament and the Council - the new directive will only fully apply from 2021.
The text establishes a raft of criteria and technical provisions to ensure the websites and mobile apps of public sector bodies are more accessible, especially for the blind, the deaf and the hard of hearing. It also makes provision for a small number of exceptions, for example, for old content that is not essential for the administrative procedures, such as the format of office files, pre-recorded messages and archives. Also excluded will be content generated on Twitter, live streaming and heritage collections held by museums or libraries. The joint legislators also decided not to include broadcasters and to settle that issue within the framework of the negotiations on the European Accessibility Act.
As already stated (see EUROPE 11544), the agreement puts in place a number of safeguards: firstly, public sector bodies will be required regularly to demonstrate that their services comply with the new directive, and to provide an explanation if any part of their content is inaccessible. They will then have to make that content accessible “on demand”. Lastly, they will have to have in place a hyperlink to an “enforcement procedure” to which users will be able to turn if they fail to receive a satisfactory response.
Reactions. “For me, this is a great victory. I believe that it is a disgrace that, in the 21st century, many handicapped people still find themselves excluded from accessing information on the internet. Inaccessibility belongs to digital prehistory not to the world of today”, stated rapporteur Dita Charanzova (ALDE, Czech Republic). “Tonight's agreement is an important step towards a digital single market, which is about removing barriers so that all Europeans can get the best from the digital world”, said Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip.
The provisional agreement still has to be ratified by the Council and the European Parliament. Member states will have 21 months to transpose the text into their national legislation. The new rules will apply to new web sites 12 months after transposition, to all sites 24 months after transposition and to mobile apps 33 months after transposition. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)