European Union’s Web Accessibility Directive (WAD) is defining 23th of September 2020 to be the deadline for “old” public sector webpages to be accessible!
Public sector websites published before 23 September 2018 must be compliant by 23 September 2020.
Web Accessibility Directive of European Union
WAD is not a new directive and has been enforced since 22th of December 2016, but it tried to be practical regarding existing websites in the public sector (inside EU) so they included a “grace” period that ends on 23. September 2020.
What does this really mean, technically speaking?
It means that all public sector webpages must conform to the current harmonized standard EN 301 549 V2.1.2 (2018-08) PDF (opens in new window), which is in fact in line with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 (opens in new window).
So it is a giant step towards more inclusive public sector in the whole European Union that will surely benefit millions of users and contribute to better public services.
It will also have a positive impacts on the private sector webpage accessibility – I am confident – as market will see all the benefits of accessible and inclusive online products and services and demand no less from privately own services and products.
Please read more on European Union’s Web Accessibility here (opens in new window).
