1. No category

How to make standards and
legislation meet the needs of all
consumers?
Chiara Giovannini, ANEC Senior Manager, Policy &
Innovation
31 March 2014, Paris, France
March 2014
Raising Standards for Consumers
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Content
• 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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Raising Standards for Consumers
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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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EU Internal Market
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
European standards bodies
Voluntary
standards
European legislation
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to
the
complement
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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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So consumer participation...
has been
centralised at the
European level
since 1995
‘The European Association for the
Co-ordination of Consumer
Representation in Standardisation’
(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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Mission
ANEC promotes, defends and represents
the European consumer interest in:
• the development of standards (policy
and technical)
• the use of
assessment)
standards
(conformity
• the development of laws related
standards or use of standards
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to
9
Scope
Safety, performance,
quality, accessibility and
environmental aspects of
products and services
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ANEC structure
General Assembly (ANEC/GA)
(one individual from each of 33 countries EU+EFTA+Accession)
Steering Committee (ANEC/SC)
(up to 10 members from GA)
Secretariat
(11 staff)
Working Groups (ANEC/WGs or PTs)
(8 WGs comprising experts drawn from member countries)
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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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Main ANEC Partners
The mainstream European
consumers organisation
- especially in helping to shape European legislation and
public policies in the consumer interest
Consumers International
- especially in ensuring the participation of consumer
experts in international standardisation (ISO, IEC, UNECE)
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
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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,
Loughborough
Limited
Royal
National
University,
(INDRA),
The
Institute
Inclusive
School
of
of
Blind
Design
People
Research
Computing
Science,
(RNIB),
Associates
Middlesex
University, Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted.
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Some more facts and figures
60.000+
experts
from business
75 experts in
CEN committees
on behalf of consumers
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Public procurement
Public procurement – 16.3% of EU GDP
Purchasing best value for tax-payers money
Value
may
include
also
environmental considerations
social
Directives 2004/17/EC and
(revised
with
mandatory
requirements!)
2004/18/EC
accessibility
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and
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Web Accessibility Directive
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
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)
of
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:
objective, 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 order to avoid market
fragmentation, if possible
Template
for
conformance
claims
of
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
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Recipe for success?
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Concluding remarks
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
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Concluding remarks
Consumer
representation
development is essential:
experts are needed
in
more
standards
consumer
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
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Concluding remarks
Consumer representation is not guaranteed by
the market: There is need for public
intervention
Public funding is essential for
consumer voice: Experts cannot
support themselves
a strong
afford to
And funds must be available to undertake
independent R&T: Otherwise the consumer
position can be easily ignored
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www.anec.eu
http://companies.to/anec
@anectweet
Thank you
for your
attention!
March 2014
Raising Standards for Consumers