Geneva, 25 November 2011 How accessibility-focused public procurement can be used to improve the quality of future relay services Mike Pluke, Leader of Specialist Task Force STF416 ITU-T Workshop onTelecommunications relay services for persons with disabilities (Geneva, 25 November 2011)

Geneva, 25 November What is ETSI (1)? A European standards organization Officially recognized by EU & EFTA Setting globally-applicable standards for Telecommunications, in general Radio communications, especially mobile Broadcasting, and Related topics

What is ETSI (2)? Active in all areas of ICT An independent, non-profit organization, created in 1988 Offering direct participation of all members ETSI has more than 15,000 publications available for free! Geneva, 25 November

How to ensure that a relay service meets the needs of its users? Simple answer: 1) Find a source of requirements that define what such a service needs to deliver. 2) Follow the requirements laid out in that source. The service should always be tested after this, but that is another story … Geneva, 25 November

Europe has a suitable source In 2009 ETSI published ES (V1.2.1): "Human Factors (HF); Harmonized relay services It is intended to give information suitable for incorporation into contracts between commissioning agents and service providers. (ES Scope) This was the result of a long and thorough programme of work … Geneva, 25 November

The provenance of ES (1) In June 2000 a Technical Report (TR ) was published: it covered relay services for text telephones and was based on NFTH 4/1998: "Nordic guidelines for Telecommunications relay services and actual US experience of running relay services Geneva, 25 November

The provenance of ES (2) ETSI saw the need to consider a wider range of relay service types (some not yet implemented) changes in the available technology changes in the telecommunications environment (many parties may be involved - not just a national operator) what operational relay services existed in Europe and internationally Geneva, 25 November

The provenance of ES (4) As ES was intended for use in procurement it needed to build on the extensive work done for TR include performance targets that are realistically achievable ETSI members provided feedback that ensured that ES met its objectives Geneva, 25 November

Breadth of relay services ES gives requirements for: text relay services speech to speech relay services sign relay services lipreading relay services captioned telephony services text to text services facsimile relay services Geneva, 25 November

Providing a standard is not enough It is currently unlikely that all new European relay services will follow ES because: there is no guarantee that those specifying relay services know that ES exists if they know of ES there is no requirement that they should follow it Enter Mandate M 376 … Geneva, 25 November

What Mandate M 376 is M 376 is a standards mandate to the European Standards Organisations CEN, CENELEC and ETSI Its remit is "European Accessibility Requirements for Public Procurement of Products and Services in the ICT Domain" Geneva, 25 November

What Mandate M 376 delivers M 376 will introduce technical requirements and test methods for eAccessibility which will apply to all ICT products and services sold to the European Public sector (in EN ) details of conformity assessment related to these requirements an on-line toolkit Geneva, 25 November

Motivations for M 376 Inclusion of people with disabilities Ageing society and workforce Fragmentation of technical requirements Access to skilled workforce who may be barred from entry to employment UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Geneva, 25 November

Why M 376 work is important This EC/EFTA co-funded work will lead to common eAccessibility requirements across the EU/EFTA It aims to minimise conflicts with existing accessibility requirements It will support and enable developing European policy It encourages eAccessibility through public procurement Geneva, 25 November

The M 376 Work and Standard An ETSI Specialist Task Force (STF416) and a CEN Project Team are jointly doing the work STF416 will deliver EN : Human Factors (HF); Accessibility requirements for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe providing functional accessibility requirements necessary for the public procurement of ICT Geneva, 25 November

Mandate 376 and relay services (1) The latest draft of the standard (EN) has a requirement that states that publicly procured communications systems: "shall not prevent access to relay services for incoming and outgoing calls so as to achieve functionally equivalent communication access by persons with disabilities." Geneva, 25 November

Mandate 376 and relay services (2) The latest draft of the EN also has a requirement for public bodies wishing to procure relay services that: directly points to the clauses of ES that apply to the type of relay service being procured allows the procuring body to specify key service variants that they want e.g. specify a 24 hour or limited hour service (such options are built into ES ) Geneva, 25 November

M 376 puts ES in the spotlight The EC is proposing that including accessibility requirements in public procurement should be mandatory EN will be the source of those requirements Referencing ES from the EN: places an obligation on those procuring relay services to include the ES requirements in their calls for tenders Geneva, 25 November

Acknowledgements All of the ETSI work on relay services has been led by Wally Mellors If you need to understand more of the background to the work, please contact him at: Theres nothing he doesnt know about the subject! Geneva, 25 November

How to monitor or contribute to M376 By commenting on the drafts at Via your National (European) Standards Body your trade association (Digital Europe for the European ICT sector) user and consumer organisations your (European) government procurement body By contacting the Joint Working Group directly at Geneva, 25 November

Thank you for your attention For further information on Mandate 376 activity or the work of the ETSI Human Factors Technical Committee please contact me at: And a reminder that Wally Mellors (the ETSI relay services guru) can be contacted at: Geneva, 25 November