EDF welcomes the formal notification by the European Commission to the European standardisation organisations and European stakeholder organisations in relation to the development of the Accessibility Act standards. With this, the Commission has published the final draft standardisation request for developing harmonised standards in support of the European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882) after consulting relevant stakeholder organisations, including organisations of persons with disabilities.
We support:
- the Commission’s request for six standards in support of the EAA, including the revision of the three European standards on accessibility resulting from previous requests, and three new standards;
- aspects related to ensuring inclusiveness of the standardisation work for persons with disabilities and their representative organisations by European Standardisation Organisations, including ensuring accessibility and reasonable accommodation during standarisation;
- new additions making clear the importance of ensuring interoperability, including for electronic communications and emergency communications with the single European Emergency number 112.
- setting deadlines for development of the standards by the application date of the relevant provisions of the Accessibility Act.
We regret that:
- aspects related to ensuring inclusiveness and accessibility of standardisation do not extend to national standardisation organisations;
- the request to make EAA standards free of charge for non-profit organisations has been removed.
See the full statement:
- EDF statement on Draft standardisation request for the Accessibility Act (Word)
- EDF statement on Draft standardisation request for the Accessibility Act (PDF)
Contact:
Mher Hakobyan, EDF accessibility officer (mher.hakobyan@edf-feph.org).