e-Accessibility initiatives undertaken in Belgium

Information management Internet communication Key aspects: content multilingualism presentation Sword/ASCii

 ………  September 2001: Commission Communication « eEurope 2002: Accessibility of Public Web Sites and their content »  October 2001: Council resolution on « e-Inclusion » - exploiting the opportunities of the information society for social inclusion  Responses from the other EU Institutions to the eEurope 2002 Communication of the Commission of September 2001 (Economic and Social Committee, February 2002 Opinion, Council, March 2002 Resolution, Committee of the Regions, May 2002 Opinion, Parliament, June 2002 Resolution)  April 2002: European network of Centres of Excellence in Design for All/National Contact Centres  June 2002: eEurope 2005 – “An information society for all”  European Year of People with Disabilities  2003/ eEurope 2005 Mid-term Review: mid-term progress report on the eEurope 2005 Action Plan published by the EC  ……. EU rules & policy in the field of e-Accessibility

Belgium Law on Anti-discrimination February 25 th ~ March 17 th 2003 « Any lack of reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities will be considered as a form of discrimination »

Belgium Since December 2003 the French and Dutch language versions of the Belgian federal portal site have been awarded the «BlindSurfer label».

Belgium The BlindSurfer label was created in the year 2000 by Rudi Canters and is now distributed by 2 Belgian organisations: “Blindenzorg Licht en Liefde” and, since June 2002, “ONA (Oeuvre Nationale des Aveugles)”. In Belgium, the BlindSurfer label has been proposed as the official Quality Mark for Accessible web sites.

Belgium

Belgium

Belgium On June 11th 2004 the Flemish Government decided that the websites of its institutions (the Flemish Government, the Ministry of the Flemish Community and the Flemish public en scientific institutions) should be made accessible to people with disabilities and the elderly within a reasonable time frame and within the available budgets: the Internet sites before the end of 2007 the intranets by 2010.

Belgium Support: « ToeWeb Initiative » Criteria (technical, editorial, …) Practical information Useful links

Belgium On February 20 th 2003, the Walloon Region decided to actively start addressing the problems of its inaccessible web sites. Less than a month later (on April 10th 2003), the Walloon Government adopted a series of measures to improve the accessibility of the majority of the public websites in the Walloon Region.

Belgium

Belgium

Links BlindSurfer Label Blindenzorg Licht en Liefde ONA (Oeuvre Nationale des Aveugles) Belgium - Federal Portal Belgium - Federal Government (WebGuide) webguide.fgov.be “ToeWeb” Initiative

Links Wall-On-Line egov.wallonie.be BDfAN (Belgian Design for All Network)