Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the "Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions — eEurope 2002: Accessibility of Public Web Sites and their Content"
Date: 2002-05-15
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: Internet, access to information

C 278/24

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

14.11.2002

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the ‘Communication from the Commission to the
Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the
Regions — eEurope 2002: Accessibility of Public Web Sites and their Content’

(2002/C 278/07)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

having regard to the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the
Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions — eEurope 2002: Accessibility of
Public Web Sites and their Content (COM(2001) 529 final);

having regard to the Commission’s decision of 25 September 2001 to consult the Committee of the
Regions in accordance with the provisions of the first paragraph of Article 265 of the Treaty establishing
the European Community;

having regard to the decision of its Bureau on 6 February 2002 to ask the Commission for Culture and
Education to draw up an opinion on the matter;

having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the Communication from the
Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the
Committee of the Regions on the Fifth Report on the implementation of the Telecommunications
Regulatory Package; the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament,
the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions — Towards a new framework for
electronic communications infrastructure and associated services — the 1999 Communications Review
(COM(1999) 537 final) (COM(1999) 539 final) (CdR 520/1999 fin) (1);

having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the Proposal for a Directive of the
European Parliament and of the Council on universal service and users’ rights relating to electronic
communications networks and services (COM(2000) 392 final — COD (2000/0183) (CdR 274/
2000 fin) (2);

having regard to the draft opinion adopted by the Commission for Culture and Education on 22 March
2002 (CdR 397/2001 rev. 2) (rapporteur: Mr Ervelä, Chairman of Sauvo Local Council, Chairman of the
Regional Council of Southwest Finland, FIN/ELDR),

at its 44th plenary session of 15 and 16 May 2002 (meeting of 15 May) adopted the following opinion
unanimously.

The Committee of the Regions

1.1.
considers the matter addressed in the Commission
communication to be crucially important for realising the
social objectives of the European information society men-
tioned in the eEurope initiative and in other contexts;

1.2.
endorses the main conclusions and recommendations
presented in the communication for rapid development of
Web accessibility in the public sector;

1.3.
notes that many municipal and regional services
already exist specifically for people with disabilities and older
people, and considers it to be very useful that the Commission
has supported the guidelines developed by the World Wide
Web Consortium to ensure that the needs of particular user

( 1) OJ C 226, 8.8.2000, p. 56.
( 2) OJ C 144, 16.5.2001, p. 60.

groups can be relatively easily taken into account in the
development of the growing number of public services pro-
vided through the Internet;

considers the recommendation that public web sites
1.4.
should be brought into line with the guidelines to be too
general, since some municipal and regional online services are
already designed exclusively for disabled or elderly people and
some for very small and specific groups of users, whose
accessibility does not necessarily have to be taken into account
in the same way;

1.5.
wishes to point out that users of municipal and
regional online services are now quite a heterogeneous group
in Europe. In addition to disabled and elderly people, the
accessibility of various ethnic, language and religious groups
must also be taken into account when developing services.
The guidelines presented in the Communication partly serve
to develop accessibility for these groups, but the Committee of

14.11.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 278/25

the Regions hopes that in future the Commission can extend
the development of guidelines to take the particular needs of
the above-mentioned user groups into account;

1.6.
draws the Commission’s attention to the fact that use
of applications based on Internet browsers is now also
increasing very rapidly within organisations, which means that
the guidelines described in the Communication could also
have a considerable impact on the provision of equal oppor-
tunities in the workplace;

1.7.
suggests that enhancing public Web accessibility par-
ticularly in municipal and local government should be made a
priority objective of pilot studies at European level also,
since this level of public administration produces the largest
proportion of services targeted at disabled and older people;

1.9.
emphasises that public sector services must be con-
sidered as an integrated whole determined by citizens’ needs,
and the part of these services provided through the Internet
should not be treated separately. It is particularly important
that services provided to disabled and older people through
traditional channels can be developed alongside online ser-
vices, that this group is no longer seen in a way that serves to
exclude it and that the rights of people with disabilities are
taken into account;

1.10.
recommends that European local and regional auth-
orities should as soon as possible apply the guidelines for
developing online services set out in the communication and
make whatever efforts are necessary to remove barriers to
accessing them so that the new technologies do not create
further difficulties for disabled people;

1.8.
suggests that developing certain local and regional —
both public and private sector — portals could be an
instrument of good practice with respect to improving Web
accessibility in the private sector;

1.11.
notes that there should be sufficient investment in
promoting guidelines with businesses that are specifically
developing and providing services, since understanding of the
often straightforward accessibility options is in many cases
deficient.

Brussels, 15 May 2002.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Albert BORE