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Event report | Publication

13th Meeting of the Web Accessibility Directive Expert Group - 15-16/11/2023

The meeting took place in Brussels on 15 and 16 November 2023. This page includes a summary of the topics discussed and lists all relevant documents.

1. Culture change through accessibility monitoring

Speaker:  WAI-Coop

Presentation of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).  

2. Understanding EU legislative process – Amendments, Implementation and Harmonisation

a.  EU law on web accessibility in public sector 

Speaker: Web Accessibility Directive Team, European Commission 

The speaker presented the EU legislative process, including amendments, implementing acts, and recommendations of Web accessibility directive 

b.  Status with respect to the European standard 

Speaker: Web Accessibility Directive Team, European Commission 

The speaker presented the status with respect to the European standard (WCAG 2.2, EN 301 549) and the standards harmonisation process and existing resources online. 

3. Workshop 1: Monitoring and testing

- Monitoring struggles: case of Estonia (video) 

Speaker: Harri Puskar - Expert on Digital Accessibility, Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority, ESTONIA 

Estonia presented “Monitoring struggles: case of Estonia” by video message.  

 - Group discussions  

4. Workshop 2: Reporting and progress

- Austria’s monitoring report and its target groups 

Speakers: Austria Research Promotion Agency, Monitoring Body, Reporting and Enforcement Body (Federal level) 

Austria presented their monitoring report, how to understand it and its target groups characteristics. 

-Reporting and progress

Speaker: Centre for excellence in universal design, Ireland 

Ireland presented challenges of their approach of analysing, presenting and comparing the monitoring data. 

- Group discussions 

5. Workshop 3: Tools, expertise, skills 

 - The challenges the Republic of Cyprus is facing during the preparation of the 2nd Report on the outcome of the monitoring and use the enfacement procedure 

Speaker: Department of Information Technology Services, Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, Cyprus 

Cyprus presented the challenges they are facing during the preparation of the 2nd Report on the outcome of the monitoring and use of the enforcement procedure. 

- An online Checklist to Validate Web Accessibility of Mobile Applications 

Speaker: Digital Competences Development Centre, Ministry of Digital Affairs, Poland 

Poland presented their practice of using an online Checklist to validate web accessibility of mobile applications. 

- Greece 's actions on Building capacity on web accessibility  

Speaker: Executive in Web Accessibility and Social Affairs Dept., Directorate of Digital Strategy, Greece 

Greece presented the Digital Accessibility Guide for websites and mobile applications of public organizations, the training program Websites and Mobile Apps Accessibility” and thematic workshops for raising awareness and informing about web accessibility in the 87th International Fair in Thessaloniki. 

- Group discussions

6. Workshop4: Enforcement, accessibility statements, feedback

- The Swedish process of penalty injunctions 

Speaker: Swedish Agency for Digital Government 

Sweden presented supervision process and how to handle penalty fines according to the law. 

- Group discussions