The development of EU law and policy relating to e-accessibility : how accessible web design facilitated by law?

Abstract

Person with different (dis)abilities are still suffering, due to the generally low level of accessibility of the Internet. In their case, barrier-free websites are essential to enable access to on-line information, goods and services provided by public or even commercial and private entities and to help better achieve societal inclusion. This dissertation reviews the considerable headway being made in the field of e-accessibility at European Union (EU) level, with e-accessibility having been raised to a central position, as well as the recent and ongoing efforts, and the ground still to be covered. To achieve e-accessibility as the main aim – in the absence of a specialized disability related directive – the EU has followed and applied different approaches and regulatory techniques. The study discusses the relevant EU legislation which is mainly based on two different approaches: the principles of non-discrimination (equal treatment) and the free movement of goods and services. It also considers the principal policy documents and legislation in this area. The EU has applied different regulatory techniques in this field: not only direct regulation, but also standardization, self-regulation and voluntary regulation. This study is designed to discuss the development of EU web accessibility regulation, and to analyse whether the regulatory instruments are appropriate. A designated chapter outlines the current state of affairs, the legal landscape, and the practice of the web accessibility at national level in Hungary. The final chapter concludes that, while some progress has been achieved, the target of achieving full e-accessibility and e-inclusion is still very much a ‘work in progress’. The central question throughout the dissertation is how e-accessibility should be facilitated by law, how a barrier-free web design could be regulated by law, and to what extent legal regulation is suitable to determine this.