Developing a Global Digital Accessibility Policy: What’s Going On Around the World?

David Sloan @sloandrSarah Horton @gradualclearing

What we plan to do• Present a case study looking at the findability

and nature of global digital accessibility policy and legislation

• Consider implications for organizations working globally

• More details in our blog post on global policy

What we ask you to do• Contribute your own experiences• Ask us questions• Share the session

A global view of accessibility

Image credit: Wikipedia

Accessibility policy challenges for large organizations

• Different types of digital product and service– Growth by acquisition

• Different processes• Scattered expertise and awareness of accessibility• Different territories, different local/market

requirements

Relevant Global Policies

UN CRPD• The UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UN

CRPD, 2008)• Coverage includes:

– Focus on universal design– Accessibility of public information, communication systems and mass-

media– Rights to access to digital educational content– Rights to access culturally significant digital content

• Digital progress monitored annually by G3ict

Marrakesh Treaty• The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to

Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled (2013)– Provides for exceptions to copyright legislation to

allow people with print disabilities to receive accessible versions of copyrighted content

A sample of digital accessibility legislation and policy

Image credit: Wikipedia

Territories covered• Four economically significant territories:

Brazil, China, India, South Africa• Australia selected as a baseline of a mature

legislative environment for digital accessibility

Approach• Opportunistic research strategy• We looked at:– Ratification of UN CRPD and Marrakesh Treaty– Existence, availability and nature of legislation,

and policy relating to digital accessibility

Findings• All territories have ratified the UN CRPD• But status and evolution of disability rights

legislation and supporting documentation is inconsistent

• Digital accessibility advocacy and outreach efforts in all territories – evidence particularly in Brazil and India

National web accessibility standardsStandard Scope Notes

AUS WCAG 2 AA Govt and non-gov

Specified in DDA guidance from Human Rights Commission

BRA eMAG 3.0 Gov (similar to WCAG 2 AA, but with some differences)

CHN None found – but some do exist

? Reference WCAG 2

IND Guidelines for Indian Government Web sites

Gov Accessibility requirements equivalent to WCAG 2 A. India also has a National Policy on Electronic Accessibility (2013)

RSA None found n/a

Copyright and accessibility• Australia, Brazil, China and India have signed

the Marrakesh Treaty – no ratification yet• All territories have copyright legislation– Brazil and India have some provisions for the

rights of people with disabilities to receive accessible versions

Some things for organizations to consider

• Slow convergence in nature of national policies, much vagueness still exists in disability equality legislation

• Diverse definitions of and attitude to disability• But potential trend towards focus on print

disability

Some things for organizations to consider

• Prominence of WCAG 2 (and absence of other WAI guidelines…)

• Dominance of HTML as output format• Some caution over relying on PDF as digital

content format

Some things for organizations to consider

• The need for capacity (legal and technical) to monitor global trends and events in legislation and standards

• Recognize and incorporate accessibility as a part of internationalization and localization efforts

Acknowledgements• We thank Pearson Global for their support in

funding this research study.