Has been published in the official gazette of the european union
Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the european parliament and of the council of 26 october 2016, on the accessibility of websites and applications for mobile devices of the public sector agencies
After the political agreement reached last may by european commission, european parliament and the european council (member states) is published this directive enters into force 20 days of its publication in the DOUE.
The Directive will cover all websites and mobile applications of the public sector, since those of administrations, courts and police services in hospitals, universities and public libraries, and make accessible to all citizens, especially those with hearing disabilities, visual or functional.
In the coming 12 months should be transposed to spanish law and will supersede and improve the conditions already required to the public administrations
Royal Decree 1494/2007
, this means that portals to meet the requirements of priority 1 and 2 of the standard UNE 139803:2012 (equivalent to level AA WCAG 2.0 in).
Some salient features with respect to modern requirements in Spain are:
- The inclusion of mobile applications developed by the public administrations.
- The inclusion of intranets and extranets new or renewed substantially.
- In each gateway there must be a statement of accessibility, a mechanism for reporting bugs and request content not demand accessible.
- Each Member State must define a monitoring mechanism and agency responsible for this.
- There will be public reports to the european commission every three years of the state of implementation.
The established rules will enter into force for the
new portal 12 months after the transposition
for the rest of portals 24 months after the transposition and mobile applications for 33 months after the transposition.
In the next 24 months, in accordance with the directive itself, member states must agree and define the methodology of monitoring and reporting, the models of declaration of accessibility and common technical specifications for the field of mobile applications.
More information on ICT accessibility in the spanish public administrations.
