CEN and CENELEC are fully committed to ensuring that, through their standards, goods and services are equally accessible to all. In this context, they just released the updated “CEN-CENELEC Protocol on accessibility following a Design for All approach in standardization”. The protocol outlines the procedure to help technical bodies decide whether accessibility, with a Design for All approach, should be addressed when developing or revising a standardization deliverable.
The new version, adopted by CEN/BT/Working Group 213 ‘Strategic Advisory Group on Accessibility’ (SAGA), was made shorter and more simple to use, based on the feedback received on its previous version: in the current format, the protocol is now reduced from 6 to 2 documents.
Interested Technical Body officers are invited to start with document 1 – ‘The Protocol Form’, which helps understand if and how accessibility is applicable to projects. Further information and guidance on how to include accessibility to standardization projects can be found under document 2 – ‘Relevance’.
Furthermore, in the New Work Item form that has been made effective as of 10 January 2022, Accessibility aspects are covered under point 10, which will include a direct link to the Protocol.
For more information, don’t hesitate to reach out to the Secretariat of CEN/BT WG 213 Strategic Advisory Group on Accessibility (Ms Marit Kveine Nygren mny@standard.no).
Christina THORNGREEN
cthorngreen@cencenelec.eu
