Council Resolution on 6 February 2003 "eAccessibility" — improving the access of people with disabilities to the knowledge based society
Date: 2003-02-06
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: Internet, access to information, information society, integration of people with disabilities, new technology, social policy

18.2.2003

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 39/5

COUNCIL RESOLUTION

on 6 February 2003

‘eAccessibility’ — improving the access of people with disabilities to the knowledge based society

(2003/C 39/03)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION:

8. RECALLING that on 3 December 2001, the Council adopted
a Decision to designate 2003 as the European Year of
People with Disabilities (3),

1. RECALLING that the Community has among its tasks to
promote throughout
the Community a high level of
employment and social protection and to raise the
standard of living and quality of life, and economic and
social cohesion,

2. RECALLING the Resolution of

the Council and of

the
Representatives of
the Member
States meeting within the Council of 17 December 1999
the
employment
on the
information society (1);

and social dimension of

the Governments of

3. RECALLING that the Lisbon European Council of 23 and 24
March 2000 called for an Information Society for all,

4. RECALLING that

the Commission adopted a Communi-
cation on 12 May 2000 ‘Towards a Barrier Free Europe
for people with Disabilities’,

5. RECALLING that a key objective of

the ‘eEurope 2002
Action Plan’, endorsed by the Feira European Council of
19 and 20 June 2000, is to achieve the participation for all
in the knowledge-based economy,

6. RECALLING that on 27 November 2000,

the Council
adopted a Directive aimed at combating discrimination
on several grounds,
regards
employment and occupation (2),

including disability,

as

9. RECALLING that the European Parliament and the Council
in the Decision No 50/2002/EC of 7 December 2001
concerning an EC action programme, furthering the co-
operation between Member States in combating social
exclusion, stress the importance of the gender equality
aspect of the causes and effects of exclusion in the initial
considerations. This section also draws attention to Articles
2 and 3 of the Treaty, thus focusing on the fact that
removal of inequality and promotion of equality between
women and men are among the tasks of the Community,
which ought to serve as a goal for all its activities,

10. RECALLING that

the opportunities of

the Council adopted a Resolution on
‘e-Inclusion — exploiting
the
inclusion’ (4) which called
Information Society for social
on the Member States and the European Commission to,
amongst other
‘tackling
technical barriers for people with different disabilities in
terms of ICT equipment and web-content, in particular by
implementing the respective eEurope actions, monitored
by the e-Accessibility Expert Group’,

endorse actions

things,

for:

11. RECALLING that the Council adopted a Resolution on the
‘accessibility of public web sites and their content’ on 20
March 2002 (5) that, amongst other things,
‘INVITES the
High Level Group on the Employment and Social
Dimension of
to
monitor progress in the adoption and implementation of
the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines and to
develop common methodologies and comparable data so
as to facilitate the evaluation of progress’,

Information Society

(ESDIS)

the

7. RECALLING that one of the objectives in the fight against
poverty and social exclusion, approved by the Nice
European Council of 7 to 9 December 2000,
is to
exploit fully the potential of the knowledge-based society
and of new information and communication technologies
taking particular
and ensure that no-one is excluded,
account of the needs of people with disabilities,

12. RECOGNISING the existence of a report, submitted as a
Commission Staff Working Paper entitled:
‘Delivering
eAccessibility — improving disabled people's access to
the Knowledge Based Society’,

(1) OJ C 8, 12.1.2000, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 303, 2.12.2000, p. 16.

(3) OJ L 335, 19.12.2001, p. 15.
(4) OJ C 292, 18.10.2001, p. 6.
(5) OJ C 86, 10.4.2002, p. 2.

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13. TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the recommendations made by the
ESDIS High Level Group on the basis of this analysis,

CALLS ON MEMBER STATES AND INVITES THE COMMISSION:

(a) with regard to the utilisation of the WAI guidelines,
to promote common methodologies and comparable
data in relation to public websites in the Member
States and the European Institutions and to coor-
the
dinate
separate Member States' activities and cooperate
with them;

a monitoring

considering

process

and,

tackle

in particular,

I. To tap the information society's potential for people with
removal of
disabilities
technical, legal and other barriers to their effective partici-
pation in the knowledge based economy and society. In
doing so to utilise, as far as possible, existing funding mech-
anisms and facilitate liaison with the appropriate actors,
such as the Disability NGOs, and the European Standards
Organisations. In particular, via the following measures:

the

1. promote a more coordinated and focused approach by
the key players involved in eAccessibility activities and in
the application and development of existing and new
instruments in the areas of technology and standards,
and
legislation
information;

persuasion,

education

and

and

2. provide a focus for such a more coordinated approach
by a web portal, dedicated to eAccessibility issues, to be
set up and maintained by the European Commission;

3. raise awareness in order that the development of any
technology equipment, methodology or activity, within
the scope of
social
exclusion;

the Information Society avoids

4. encourage and empower people with disabilities to take
more control over the development of the mechanisms
their
for delivering
increased participation in:

eAccessibility by

support

for

(a) technology programmes and projects;

(b) standardisation bodies and technical committees;

(c) committees looking at legislative and/or persuasive
measures and education, training and empowerment
initiatives.

II. To consider

taking more particular measures

in areas
identified in the Commission Staff Working Paper on
‘Delivering eAccessibility’, including:

(b) to promote a feedback of standardisation activities
and their impact on the real-life situation of the
elderly and people with disabilities;

(c)

to ensure that the Sixth Framework programme for
Research and Technical Development 2003-2006
(6FP) will support actions to promote eInclusion,
developing both empowering
and
barrier-free technologies and including the take-up
of results. To consider, while drawing up projects,
the consequences for people with disabilities and
thus avoid social exclusion;

technologies

2. persuasive instruments and/or legislative measures:

(a) to consider the provision of an ‘eAccessibility mark’
for goods and services which comply with relevant
standards for eAccessibility;

(b) to continue the current efforts for greater harmon-
isation of Member States accessibility criteria (e.g. via
their public procurement rules) in order to persuade
commercial goods and service providers to offer
more eAccessible goods and services;

(c)

to promote measures to encourage private enterprise
ICT based products and services
to make their
accessible including requiring accessible products
and services for ICT public procurement contracts
to be accessible. In this case to promote the utili-
sation of the possibilities that exist within existing
European public procurement legislation to include
specific references to accessibility criteria of relevant
goods and services;

are

that, where possible,
that

to
(d) to ensure
copyright
legal
framework laid down in Directive 2001/29/EC (1)
in
enable the dissemination of protected material
accessible formats
the use of people with
disabilities;

consistent with the

exceptions

for

1. technical/standards instruments:

(1) OJ L 167 van 22.6.2001, p. 10.

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(e) to consider broadening the scope of measures of

non-discrimination of people with disabilities;

3. educative and informative instruments:

(a) to promote the aim that the network of Centres of
Excellence and networking in Design for All becomes
ever more inclusive and covers all Member States;

(b) to promote the aim that proposed Design for All
curricula are developed and adopted by the relevant
educational authorities in each Member State. In this
case use, where possible, funds earmarked for such
an activity within appropriate ‘networks of excel-
lence’ projects financed under the European RDT
Framework programme;

and the

awareness

raising of people with
(c) to provide
disabilities
service
providers of the opportunities of modern ICT and
the net for people with disabilities and the elderly.
Utilise appropriate existing Community structural
programmes towards this end;

elderly as well

as

the
through

employability of people with
(d) to improve
disabilities
vocational
programmes targeted towards KBS jobs as well as
training in KBS-oriented skills within other voca-
existing
tional programmes. Utilise
Community structural programmes towards this end;

appropriate

appropriate

(e) promote the application of principles of and apply
existing facilities for lifelong learning to upgrade the
skills of people with disabilities;

(f)

to ensure that the multimedia materials and the use
of ICT in education do not create new barriers for
the integration of students with disabilities
into
schools and other places of learning;

(g) to ensure that eAccessibility become a regular part of
all education programmes of vocational schools of
any level, e.g. Web masters, multimedia authors
and software developers. Utilise
eLearning
initiative towards this end.

the

COUNCIL CONCLUSIONS

of 26 November 2002

on a more competitive environment for enterprises

(2003/C 39/04)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

1. RECALLING:

competitive

— the conclusions of the Lisbon European Council on the
strategy for making the European Union the world's
most
knowledge-based
economy, capable of sustainable economic growth with
more and better jobs and greater social cohesion by
2010, and the further elaboration of this strategy by
the Stockholm, Gothenburg and Barcelona European
Councils,

dynamic

and

lishing, where appropriate, quantitative and qualitative
indicators and benchmarks against
in the
world and tailored to the needs of different Member
States and sectors as a means of comparing best practice,

the best

— the European Charter for Small Enterprises which calls
for the creation of the best possible environment for
small enterprises,

— the Council Decision on a Multiannual Programme for
Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, and in particular for
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
(2001 to
2005).

— the conclusions of

the Stockholm European Council,
requesting Member States and the Commission to
improve statistical
information necessary for bench-
marking, and inviting the Commission to reflect on the
use of quantitative targets in enterprise policy,

— that the Lisbon European Council decided to apply an
open method of coordination which involves estab-

2. WELCOMES:

— the Commission's Communication ‘Better Environment
for Enterprises’ and related staff working papers, which
point to progress as well as the need for strengthened
efforts in many areas of enterprise policy, and which
also include information on the candidate countries
and indicators on sustainable development,