The following article reports main conclusions of the first sessions of the European Accessibility Summit, including the Keynote and the session on the European Accessibility Act
- Find the summary of the sessions on Artificial Intelligence.
- Find the summary of the session on Public Procurement.
- Find the summary of the sessions on higher education and on video game accessibility.
Accessibility as a driver of innovation
The Summit started with opening remarks by Catherine Naughton, our Executive Director; Nanna-Louise Linde, Vice President of European Government Affairs at Microsoft and Jenny Lay-Flurrie, Chief Accessibility Officer at Microsoft.
They emphasised the importance of accessibility being a building block when designing products and services.
Catherine Naughton opened the Summit by stressing the importance of legislation like the European Accessibility Act – and how its implementation and compliance are more important than ever, since many of its obligations have applied since June.
Nanna-Louise Linde focused on the value of accessibility for businesses. She explained that to Microsoft, is
core to our mission, our mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.
She underlined that industry needs “accessibility to be part of everything we build” and that everyone has the “responsibility to make inclusion part of the standard, not the exception.”
She underlined the business case for accessibility as well:
accessibility is a driver of innovation.
Jenny Lay-Flurrie reinforced the need to include accessibility at every level of an organisation, and how it also includes access to assistive technology. Technology to which many people with disability do not have access:
this is the paradigm that we hope to collectively change.
The national and European dimension of accessibility
Minister Rob Beenders, Belgian Minister of Consumer Protection, Persons with Disabilities and Equal Opportunities delivered the keynote speech.
He started by sharing his personal experience of disability and loss of hearing, and how assistive devices, specifically a Cochlear implant, helped him feel more included in society. He underlined that recent advances, especially Artificial Intelligence, are exciting but come with challenges, including protection of personal data, algorithm bias and safeguarding fundamental rights.
He reaffirmed his commitment to treat accessibility as a structural issue, and that innovation in the area cannot be limited to innovation by private organisations.
He then shared the Belgian federal government’s work on accessibility:
- Commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;
- Advancing universal design;
- Supporting the European dimension of disability rights.
On the European dimension, he underlined:
- promoting the single market as a driver of accessibility – taking as models the Web Accessibility Directive and the European Accessibility Act;
- Investment in accessibility through public procurement rules and EU Funding, especially in transport, buildings, and digital technologies.
- A second phase of the European Disability Rights Strategy with new flagship actions and initiatives.
He finished with a hopeful call:
We can build a society where inclusion is not the exception but the norm.
European Accessibility Act
The keynote was followed by a panel discussing the European Accessibility Act, and how different EU countries are implementing this important law.
The panel included:
- Donal Fitzpatrick, Senior Advisor for the EAA, National Disability Authority (Ireland)
- Hanneke van Rooijen, Senior Enforcement Officer, Department for Consumer Protection, Authority for Consumers and Markets (Netherlands)
- Mia Ahlgren, Policy Officer, The Swedish Disability Rights Federation (Sweden)
- Dir & Prof. Dr. Thomas Alexander, Head of Division 2 “Products and Work Systems”, BAuA (Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) – Germany
The discussion was moderated by Alli Hirt, Director of Accessibility Compliance at Microsoft.
Main conclusions included:
- Easy-to-use complaint and feedback systems are still not widespread, which poses a barrier for monitoring and enforcement, as persons with disabilities cannot easily signal problematic products and services.
- Speakers from enforcement authorities detailed a wide range of actions they are undertaking: building awareness and skills in businesses and consumers, issuing guidance, developing universal design guidelines, and notifying and ‘testing’ businesses for compliance.
- There is a lack of understanding n some instances, of the scope of the Act and how to interpret and implement specific accessibility requirements.
- Need to develop clear standards and ‘easy to consult’ information on the Act.
- The industry and national authorities must involve persons with disabilities – and their organisations – to ensure truly accessible products. Not only through complaints, but also proactive feedback.
Dr. Donal Fitzpatrick highlighted that:
It is really important that industry innovates (on) products and services (and does) this in an accessible way and inclusively.
Mia Ahlgren also made a strong employment case, as:
we should employ persons with disabilities in the organisations and industry, not only as consumers. I think there is the answer in the universal design…
Alli Hirt summarised the panel by stating:
We have talked about lack of coordination among different groups, communication gaps and some fragmentation and enforcement and processes. Not only challenges but also solutions.
She also added
accessibility is good for business, this could be a message for industry, when you don’t limit it necessarily to consumers with disabilities, ageing population, temporary disabilities and other disadvantages.
The following panels focused on the benefits and challenges of Artificial Intelligence. Read the next part “European Accessibility summit: Accessibility meets Artificial Intelligence“