Well, the title is a bit too optimistic, as I am referring to the application of Web Accessibility Directive (WAD) for all public sector webpages in whole of Europe – and we know that WAD is a matter of European Union members and does therefore not cover whole Europe.
Please mind that new websites (published after 23.Sep.2018) should already be accessible from 23.Sep.2019.
just to clarify the time-frames
Older websites (published before (!) 23.Sep.2018) must be accessible from 23. Sep. 2020. Mobile applications will follow after 23. June 2021
| Website published after 23.9.2018 | must be accessible from 23.9.2019 |
| Website published before 23.9.2019 | must be accessible from 23.9.2020 |
So what is actually public sector in the eyes of WAD
I like to think that public sector is everything that is funded by public means with some additional organizations – so all authorities, ministries, departments that are financed by the state and also has some kind of special public laws.
But the directive is actually also including private companies that are financed with public contracting and also some other organizations that are partially public and private at the same time but are not commercial.
WAD tries to be a bit practical and allows for exceptions
It is a good thing that countries already have their legislation for the web accessibility and the WAD is only trying to minimize differences in the light of common market and update the technical standards that should take into account the new WCAG 2.1 as well.
Accessibility of a website depends on the content too. Some content is more difficult to be accessible and need more effort than other.
me, trying to understand the possibility for exceptions in the WAD.
Personally I do not like the parts that allow to actually not be accessible if a that would cause “disproportionate burden” – as that can quickly lead to poor excuses – but they tried to be a bit practical as well.
I will not comment on that as I believe that we should have everything accessible from the beginning, but I must admit I can see some difficulties that could lead actually to removal of not fully accessible content that could do harm.
I idealistically hope this right to exception will be used with caution and that content providers will make it clear in their accessibility statements.
Countries in Europe that are not a part of the European Union will also benefit from the WAD
I can see that WAD for the EU has positive effects on other countries too, for example;
- UK is still kind of implementing it into it’s legislation (I did not go through the laws but it seems like they respect the same time frames and WCAG 2.1 at AA,
- Switzerland updates it’s accessibility standard to WCAG 2.1 inspired by the European Union’s WAD (opens in new window, Google translate from German),
- Norway is working on implementation of the WAD into it’s legislation as well. There are some open questions that needs to be answered on the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) level – but they seem to support to incorporate 12 new WCAG 2.1 (opens in new window, Google translate from Norwegian). Norway will also require parts of private sector to comply, but it is still under discussion which parts exactly,
There are other positive effects of the WAD as well and time will definitely show how a common European effort will improve accessibility for all people, but we should understand that regulation alone is not enough and that we still need to work on the awareness, education and try to cooperate on all levels to achieve usable accessibility and not just seek compliance.
