Edited by Alex Li, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/ International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC1) Special Working Group–Accessibility Convener

Accessibility and international standards development
Special working group on accessibility
1. Users needs summary
2. Standards inventory
3. Guidance on mapping user needs

Accessibility and international standards development

Pervasive Information and communication technologies (ICT) accessibility requires coordination of many independent societal components—many of which, including education, employment, economic factors, civil-rights, and research and development, are addressed within the toolkit.  The area of focus within this section is ICT international technical standards.

One characteristic of international standards is that they can influence changes in a global scale.  While regulatory instrument generally applies within the boundary of specific jurisdiction, international standards from organizations such as International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) can more readily yield global influence.  This characteristic of international standards especially compliments the objective of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities (CRPD).  In Article 9 (a) the Convention requires State Parties “to develop, promulgate and monitor the implementation of minimum standards and guidelines for the accessibility of facilities and services open or provided to the public;” while Article 4 (f) requires the promotion of  “universal design in the development of standards and guidelines”.  It also establishes the grounds in Article 32 for International Cooperation and proactive exchanges “Facilitating cooperation in research and access to scientific and technical knowledge”. 

Read more on the obligation to define minimum standards.

Another characteristic of international standard organizations is the diverse range of topics they work on.  Standard organizations can deploy highly specialized expertise in areas such as encoding of languages or specifications for media formats which may have direct or indirect impact on accessibility of ICT.  Improving the accessibility awareness in the work of standard development would have far reaching impact on technologies that are not easily affected by regulatory instruments.

By providing appropriate ICT accessibility standards, the market of accessible ICT products and services will develop more efficiently and effectively. Standardization encourages organizations to address the needs of the people with disabilities and people with limitations due to age and triggers development of ICT products and services with built in accessibility.
 

Special working group on accessibility

Understanding the potential positive impact standards can make towards a more accessible digital society, ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC 1) approved the formation of a Special Working Group on Accessibility (SWG-A) at its Berlin meeting.  The objectives of SWG-A are:

•    determine an approach, and implement, the gathering of user requirements
•    gather and publish an inventory of all known accessibility standards efforts
•    identify areas/technologies where voluntary standards are not being addressed and suggest an appropriate body to consider the new work
•    track public laws, policies/measures and guidelines to ensure the necessary standards are available
•    through wide dissemination of the SWG materials, encourage the use of globally relevant voluntary standards
•    assist consortia/fora, if desired, in submitting their specifications to the formal standards process
SWG-A has delivered three significant deliverables—all of which are relevant to the audience of this toolkit.  All of the ISO/IEC Technical Report (TR) mentioned below can be accessed at the JTC 1 SWG-A website.

1. Users needs summary

A comprehensive user needs summary is published under ISO/IEC TR 29138-1.  The primary purpose of the user needs summary is to facilitate standard development organizations to consider barriers faced by people with disabilities during standard planning and development.  In particular, TR 29138-1:
•    discusses accessibility barriers which people with different disabilities encounter when interacting with ICT systems;
•    gathers accessibility needs of ICT users, including those with the widest range of capabilities; and
•    can be used to analyze whether or not an ICT accessibility standard fully takes into account the user needs.
TR 29138-1 contains approximately 150 specific user needs.  Two examples of user needs summary, for illustration purposes, would be:
1.1    Some users need visual information also available in auditory form.
1.2    Some users need visual information also available in tactile form.
By documenting a comprehensive list of user needs, standard development organizations and product designers can create standards and products that can better accommodate the needs of all users.  It should be noted that not all user needs are relevant to a given standard.  A good example would be a standard specifically for audio encoding most likely would not need to consider user needs related to tactile feedback, which is more relevant to hardware.

2. Standards inventory

SWG-A published ISO/IEC TR 29138-2 to itemize all know standards and public policies related to accessibility.  This inventory of standards and policies makes it easier for standard development organizations and policy makers to avoid duplication of effort and take advantage of previous effort in accessibility standards.
 

3. Guidance on mapping user needs

The publication from JTC 1 SWG-A, ISO/IEC TR 29138-3, provides guidance for standard development organizations to map a standard against user needs.  Mappings can help standards developers to consider the potential for addressing particular needs in their standards. JTC 1 encourages standardization organizations to utilize the User Needs Summary in a variety of ways, including developing and improving the coverage of accessibility issues in their ICT standards.  It should be noted that, as pointed out previously, not all user needs are relevant to a given standard.  Specific expertise in the standard domain is required to determine relevancy.

Despite the fact that ISO/IEC TR 29138 was published in June 2009, its earlier draft form has already been used as reference material for the European Commission Standardisation Mandate M376 and Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee (TEIAC) of the United States Access Board to develop upcoming accessibility policies.

The TR mentioned above can be accessed at the JTC 1 SWG-A website.  Your consideration is appreciated.