Web Accessibility Directive

The Directive on the accessibility of websites and mobile applications also known as Directive (EU) 2016/2102 was adopted by the EU in 2016. ^[1] This Directive applies to public sector organizations of Member state of the European Union. The goal was to ensure that all public sector organizations were accessible for the 80 million people with disabilities in the EU.^[2]

This EU Directive gave each member state until 2018 to be transposed into national legislation.^[3] Each member country is responsible for implementing national legislation that conforms.^[4][5] A minimum level of harmonization is required which Member States must maintain. National legislation can exceed these minimum requirements, and some countries have chosen to do so. In transposing this EU Directive to national legislation, there was no need to extend it beyond the public sector organizations, but France chose to ego beyond the minimum.^[6]

The Web Accessibility Directive Expert Group (WADEX) was established to provide support on the implementation of the Directive.^[7]

The EU also implemented four to complete the directive. These implementing decisions are legally binding acts within the European Union and are directly applicable in all member states of the EU. "Implementing decisions are always limited in scope. Their aim is to ensure uniform implementation of European legislation, and the subject-matter of any implementing decision serves that goal alone."^[8] The related implementing decisions provide a model accessibility statement (2018/1523),^[9] monitoring methodology and arrangements for reporting (2018/1524),^[10] harmonised standard for websites and mobile application (2018/2048,^[11] updated by 2021/1339).^[12]

The EU's new European Accessibility Act complements the Web Accessibility Directive and applies to the private sector, thus impacting a much larger number of people.

Implications of this Directive[]

The directive:

• addresses websites and apps of public sector organizations;
• refers to specific standards, such as EN 301 549;
• requires the publication of an for websites and mobile apps;
• calls for a feedback mechanism for users to flag accessibility problems;^[13][14]
• expects regular accessibility monitoring and corresponding public reports by Member States.^[15]

Timeline for Implementation[]

• September 23, 2018 - Member States must transpose this Directive to national legislation^[16]
• September 23 2019 - all new public sector websites must conform
• September 23 2020 - all public sector websites must conform
• June 23 2021 - all mobile apps must conform^[17]
• December 23 2021 - member states' websites will need to be monitored and publicly reported^[18]
• 23 June 2022 - European Commission to carry out a review of the application of this directive (Article 13).^[19]

Accessibility Monitoring and Reporting[]

Member States' have assigned organizations which are in charge of monitoring the implementation of the Web Accessibility Directive.^[20] Among other tasks, these organizations are responsible for regular monitoring of public sector sites,^[21] review disproportionate burden cases and accessibility statements, and guarantee both accessibility compliance and effective handling of feed-back given by users.

Example Reports[]

• UK: Accessibility monitoring of public sector websites and mobile apps 2020-2021
• Digital accessibility monitoring in Luxembourg

References[]

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