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FACTS ON O UTPUT (WITH ADDITIONS FROM THE ZERO PROJECT TEAM)
1. At least ten meetings have been held at which trans-atlantic e-accessibility dialogue took place.
2. As of 2014, the European Standard EN 301 549 is available (in English) on the ETSI website. During the next six
months it will be published (in various languages) by the members of CEN (National Standards Bodies) and
CENELEC (National Electrotechnical Committees) in 33 European countries (including all Member States of the
EU and EFTA). This work is completed by an online accessible ICT procurement toolkit helping managing
accessibility in the public procurement of ICT products by procurers, suppliers, interested stakeholders:
The toolkit focuses on four sections: Writing a call for tenders, Evaluating
tenders, Evaluating Deliverables, Managing contracts. An Accessibility Requirements Generator, with step-by-
step category, was also developed to help webmaster and public administration get the exact information they
might need on a particular kind of accessibility.
FACTS ON O UTCOME, IMPACT AND EFFECTIVENESS
1. The US-EC standard cooperation initiated in 2004 led over the years to development of two closely harmonized
standards (90%). As well, there is every indication that close cooperation will continue and will lead to final
standards that do not pose conflicts with each other, and do not take the smallest common denominator of
accessibility to achieve harmonization.
2. Aligned standards can boost and support the ICT industry to provide more accessible technologies, and due to
economies of scale, benefiting persons with disabilities in the US and the EU, and also all over the world. Some
80 million persons with disabilities in the EU, and 56.7 million in the U.S. will directly benefit from this initiatives.
3. Public procurement affects a substantial share of world trade flows, amounting to € 1,000 billion per year. It
also makes up a significant part of national economies: 10-25% of gross domestic product (GDP). In the EU, the
public purchase of goods and services has been estimated to account for 16% of GDP. Taking into account the
digitalization trend of public administrations, more and more public funds are invested in new technologies,
which must be accessible to all citizens.
TRANSFERABILITY, SCALABILITY AND COST-EFFICIENCY
The US and EC laws and policies in the ICT arena are mainly based on public procurement. This means that when
government agencies procure only ICT that is conform to accessibility standards, they create a huge leverage on the ICT
industry. Since government agencies procure billions in ICT annually, companies that wish to sell to the government
need to offer accessible products. Meanwhile both standards are mainly intended to be used by public procurers, they
can also be used by private entities.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT (WITH ADDITIONS FROM THE ZERO PROJECT TEAM)
Standards development takes a long time. Meanwhile the EC standard has been issued in 2014, this has not yet
happened in the US (the finalization though is expected by 2016). For the future, there is every indication that close
cooperation will continue. Other countries can use the same approach towards developing ICT accessibility