A case study on digital accessibility policy and legislation in 5 selected countries, and implications on accessibility policy-making by globally active organisations. Presented at A11yBos 2014 on 10 May, based on a paper given at W4A2014

1. Developing a Global Digital
Accessibility Policy: What’s Going
On Around the World?
David Sloan @sloandr
Sarah Horton @gradualclearing

2. 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

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

4. A global view of accessibility
Image credit: Wikipedia

5. 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

6. Relevant Global Policies

7. 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

8. 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

9. A sample of digital
accessibility legislation and
policy
Image credit: Wikipedia

10. Territories covered
• Four economically significant territories:
Brazil, China, India, South Africa
• Australia selected as a baseline of a mature
legislative environment for digital accessibility

11. 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

12. 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

13. National web accessibility standards
Standard 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. Acknowledgements
• We thank Pearson Global for their support in
funding this research study.