legislation meet the needs of all consumers? Chiara Giovannini, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

March 2014

How to make standards and legislation meet the needs of all consumers?

Chiara Giovannini, ANEC Senior Manager, Policy & Innovation 31 March 2014, Paris, France

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• ANEC in a nutshell (Vision & Mission,

membership, priorities)

• Why

are standards important for eAccessibility? Are they linked to legislation?

• What is the recipe for success?

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Content

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ANEC

The European consumer voice in standardisation But what does the acronym really mean?

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ANEC

« Association européenne pour la coordination de la représentation des consommateurs pour la normalisation »

(ANEC Statutes 2006)

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Many goods and services in Europe fall under Internal Market regulations Example: Legislator defines basic safety requirements in Directives («New Approach ») Technical solutions are left to the European standards bodies Voluntary standards complement European legislation

EU Internal Market

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The Problem

Standardisation is a private activity, unlike legislation, and European standardisation is based on national delegations Yes, participation of all national stakeholders is encouraged in the development of European Standards . . . but business has most to gain from influencing the content of standards and has the knowledge and resources to participate Moreover, national consumer expertise in standardisation is fragmented in many countries or simply does not exist

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‘The European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation’

So consumer participation...

has been centralised at the European level since 1995

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(or ‘The European consumer voice in standardisation’)

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ANEC facts & figures

• ANEC is an independent, private and not-for-profit association

(AISBL) established under Belgian Law

• ANEC relies on funding from the EU (95%) and EFTA (5%)

through annual grants (“Annex III Organisation” Standardisation Regulation) in order to:

• employ a central secretariat in Brussels
• reimburses some 200 volunteer experts from across Europe
• funds an ANEC R&T programme of 50.000€
• Eight areas of priority agreed by the ANEC/GA:
• Child Safety
• Information Society
• Design for All
• Innovation (Smart Meters)
• Domestic Appliances
• Services
• Sustainability
• Traffic

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ANEC promotes, defends and represents the European consumer interest in:

• the development of standards (policy

and technical)

• the

use

• f

standards (conformity assessment)

• the development of laws related to

standards or use of standards

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Mission

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2012

Safety, performance, quality, accessibility and environmental aspects of products and services

Scope

10 Raising Standards for Consumers

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ANEC structure

Raising Standards for Consumers

General Assembly (ANEC/GA)

(one individual from each of 33 countries EU+EFTA+Accession)

Steering Committee (ANEC/SC)

(up to 10 members from GA)

Working Groups (ANEC/WGs or PTs)

(8 WGs comprising experts drawn from member countries)

Secretariat

(11 staff) 11

ANEC Memberships

• Partner Organisation of
• Partner Organisation of
• Full member of
• Past member of
• Observer in ISO/COPOLCO
• Member of many EC expert groups

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EDF (European Disability Forum)

• especially in helping to shape European

legislation and public policies on accessibility ECOS (Environmental Citizens Organisation for Standardisation)

• Collaboration on environmental standards

Main ANEC Partners

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The mainstream European consumers organisation Consumers International

• especially in helping to shape European legislation and

public policies in the consumer interest

• especially in ensuring the participation of consumer

experts in international standardisation (ISO, IEC, UNECE)

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DfA standards

ANEC thinks that standards are a suitable tool to make products and services accessible for as many consumers as possible, irrespective of their age and abilities

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The ANEC DfA WG

Austrian Standards Institute, AGE Platform Europe, Disabled Peoples Organisations Denmark, Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities, Special Sizes A and O Ltd, European Blind Union, AFNOR, Association Leo Lagrange pour la Défense des Consommateurs, DIN Verbraucherrat, e-ISOTIS, University of the Aegean, Dept. of Product and Systems Design Engineering, Arvekni Heilsuverndarstöð Reykjavíkur, Resource and Rehabilitation centre for the blind, National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI), O’Herlihy Access Consultancy, Italian Union of the Blind and Partially Sighted/EDF, EFHOH (European Federation of Hard of Hearing People), Viziris, Food & Consumer Product Safety Authority NL, ONCE-CIDAT, Swedish Consumers’ Association, Ricability UK, Age Research Centre at Coventry University, BSI CPIN (Consumer & Public Involvement Network), Consumers International, Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), Loughborough University, Inclusive Design Research Associates Limited (INDRA), The School of Computing Science, Middlesex University, Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted.

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Some more facts and figures

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60.000+ experts

from business

75 experts in CEN committees

• n behalf of consumers

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Public procurement – 16.3% of EU GDP Purchasing best value for tax-payers money Value may include also social and environmental considerations Directives 2004/17/EC and 2004/18/EC (revised with mandatory accessibility requirements!)

Public procurement

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Web Accessibility Directive

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EC Proposal on 3 December 2012 Most effective way to deliver web accessibility is through an EU binding horizontal legislative act, underpinned by standards Mandatory accessibility for public sector online services EP approval on 26 February 2014, awaiting Council discussions ANEC – involvement since 2007, ‘Access Denied’ campaign

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Mandate 376

“Accessibility requirements for ICT to be used in public procurement” Phase 1:

• Report with inventory of standards
• Report on conformity assessment

Phase 2:

• Accessibility standard for ICT
• Testing methods
• Conformity assessment method
• Conformance template for declaration
• Toolkit

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Mandate 376

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EN 301 549 'Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe' TR 101 550 'Documents relevant to EN 301 549 Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe’ TR 101 551 ‘Guidelines on the use of accessibility award criteria suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe’ TR 101 552 ‘Guidance for the application of conformity assessment to accessibility requirements for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe’ On-line toolkit for public procurers

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EN 301 549

• EN 301549 - approved to go for Formal Vote,

started in December (2 months), final publication February/March 2014

• Freely available: http://www.etsi.org
• produced

by ETSI Technical Committee Human Factors (HF), and the eAccessibility Joint Working Group (JWG)

• f

CEN/CENELEC/ETSI

• Date of withdrawal of any conflicting National

Standard (dow): 31 October 2014

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EN 301 549

Objective: to set out in a single source, detailed, practical and quantifiable functional accessibility requirements that take note of global initiatives in that field and which are applicable to all Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products and services usable in public procurement. To be used for conformity assessment:

• bjective, concise and accurate test methods

that are intended to produce unambiguous, repeatable and reproducible results.

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EN 301 549

Scope: functional accessibility requirements applicable to ICT products and services, together with a description of the test procedures and evaluation methodology for each accessibility requirement in a form that is suitable for use in public procurement within Europe but also in the private sector. To help public procurers to identify the requirements for their purchases, and manufacturers to design products Basis for an accessible ICT procurement toolkit as public bodies do not have a specialist knowledge related to accessibility

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EN 301 549

Content: For web accessibility, reference to W3C WCAG 2.0 guidelines (level AA) Alignment with international accessibility requirements in

• rder

to avoid market fragmentation, if possible Template for conformance claims

• f

accessibility, facilitating the comparison of tenders

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EN 301 549

Definitions: Accessibility: extent to which products, systems, services, environments and facilities can be used by people from a population with the widest range of characteristics and capabilities, to achieve a specified goal in a specified context of use (from ISO 26800 [i.18]) Assistive technology: hardware or software added to or connected to a system that increases accessibility for an individual

Recipe for success?

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Standardisation is a problem-solving activity carried out by different stakeholders: Differences of opinions can and do happen Consumer representatives have to make their voice heard: the system needs to allow it

Concluding remarks

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Concluding remarks

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Consumer representation in standards development is essential: more consumer experts are needed Technical and procedural knowledge are both needed: on-going training of experts Effective collaboration with concerned stakeholders and public authorities: openess and transparency from both sides

Concluding remarks

Consumer representation is not guaranteed by the market: There is need for public intervention Public funding is essential for a strong consumer voice: Experts cannot afford to support themselves And funds must be available to undertake independent R&T: Otherwise the consumer position can be easily ignored

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Thank you for your attention!

Raising Standards for Consumers

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