So features such as a clean sound channel are not being incorporated because there is no legal requirement. It has proved difficult for disability groups to influence these standards. A recent success has been the change in the development of standards for the world wide web so that the needs of disabled people have been considered. Therefore convergence is not just bringing together three types of technologies, but also a clash of cultures. The current indications are that the needs of disabled people are a long way down the priority list for commercial organisations developing new systems and services.
Standardisation is important in many areas.
There are voluntary standards, semi-mandatory standards and mandatory standards. The great majority of standards are voluntary, but they are widely ignored, and often considered an irrelevance by industry. Although a number of mandatory standards for the benefit of disabled people have been adopted in Europe, there have been none in the area of convergent systems. Standardisation is slow, time consuming, lacks academic content and often has little direct commercial benefit. Therefore academics shun the area since it does not produce research publications.