1. Dónal Rice ICT Accessibility Coordinator National Disability Authority Ireland drice@nda.ie http://www.nda.ie http://accessit.nda.ie E-Accessibility Legislation and Initiatives in Ireland

2. Introduction to National Disability Authority Current Situation –Policy and Legislation – the stick –NDA IT Accessibility Guidelines –Effect of policy, legislation and initiatives on web accessibility –Excellence Through Accessibility Award – the carrot Future Developments

3. National Disability Authority Mission –Promote and help secure the rights of people with disabilities –Shape public policy and legislation –Encourage accessibility of public services Approach –To assist the Minister in the co-ordination and development of policy –To undertake and commission relevant research –To advise the Minister on standards –To monitor the implementation of standards and codes of practice –To recognise the good standards and quality with an awards system

4. Current Irish Legislation – the stick Employment Equality Act (1998) –employment of persons with disabilities –provision of accessible technologies to employee Equality Act (2004) –reasonable accommdation => undue hardship Equal Status Act (2000) –categorises discrimination under 9 grounds, one of which is disability –reasonable accomodation? – case law Disabilities Bill (2004) –public services providers obligation to ensure information delivered electronically is accessible to people with vision impairments who have access to assistive technologies

5. NDA launched the NDA IT Accessibility Guidelines v1.1 in 2002 Goal of NDA IT Accessibility guidelines - motivate users - provides guidance - easy to use Technology types - Web - Public Access Teminals (e.g. ATM’s, Information kiosks) - Telecommunication Devices - Application Software NDA IT Accessibility Guidelines

6. Two Years On… Recent Accessibility Report on Public Sector Websites by Ennis Information Services - www.eias.ie 41% of sites had poor quality alts (WCAG Priority 1) –48% had either average or poor page titles (WCAG Priority 2) –59% provided little scaling (WCAG Priority 2) –81% invalid HTML (WCAG Priority 2) NDA web survey of government web masters –Lack of awareness : –accessibility not included as a criterion in tenders –no accessibility auditing/tesing with people with disabilities during the design stage –Consultants need consultants! –Lack of awareness of how people with disabilities use ICT –Lack of awareness of why guidelines say the thinks they do

7. My current favourite Good effort – but misguided Some notable exceptions – driven by local policy eg Information Society Commission – Department of an Taoiseach “The concept of the net speaks of reaching further, of connecting and being connected. It opens from the centre, communicating at one level the opportunities for increased interaction with and within the marketplace and at another that these opportunities should be open to all.” www.etenders.gov.ie

8. Initiatives – the carrot Excellence Through Accessibility Award –Main accessibility initiative in ireland –Programme for Prosperity and Fairness 2000 - a commitment –An awards process for Government Departments and their agencies –does not apply to private sector –14 accessibility guidelines and a detailed assessment tool –Built Environment –Quality Customer Services –ICT provision of information Webistes and other HTML content Public Access Terminal eg kiosk –Pilot Study

9. Excellence Through Accessibility Award Committed to Accessibility Quality in Accessibility Excellence in Accessibility

10. The Future Next iteration of NDA IT Accessibility Guidelines – 2005 –Provide significant guidance for: –Designers eg. use of colour –Developers eg. coding an accessible form –Content creator eg. sensible link text –Guidelines for emerging technologies eg. Digital TV, 3G mobile phones –On-line forum for developers –Procuremnet toolkit – similar to “Buy Accessible” Wizard in America or toolkit in Denmark –Code of Practice for ICT audits –Provide a template for carrying out audits –Statutory weighting –Excellence Through Accessibility Award

11. Dónal Rice ICT Accessibility Coordinator National Disability Authority Ireland drice@nda.ie http://www.nda.ie http://accessit.nda.ie Questions