Details
- Publication date
- 29 June 2021
- Author
- CEN/CLC/ETSI JTB eAccessibility
- Country
- European Union
- Language
- English
- Year
- 2021
Description
This European Standard defines the requirements that products and services based on information and communication technologies (ICT) should meet to enable their use by persons with disabilities.
EN 301 549 is a harmonised standard, that supports the European Directive 2016/2102 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies (the Web Accessibility Directive). Therefore, it can be used to demonstrate compliance with that Directive. Annex A of EN 301 549 provides information on how to do so.
The standard is currently being updated to also support the European Directive 2019/882 on the accessibility requirements for products and services.
EN 301 549 can be applied to any type of ICT-based products and services. This includes software (web pages, mobile applications, desktop applications…), hardware (smartphones, personal computers, information kiosks…) and any combination of hardware and software. To that end, the requirements of the standard are self-scoping. This means that they consist of two parts; the first part is a precondition for the second part, which holds the actual requirement. If the precondition is met by a product or service, then the product or service must conform to the second part of the requirement.
The standard contains, among other contents:
- A description of the needs of persons with disabilities, written as functional performance statements, explaining the functionality that is needed to enable users with different abilities to locate, identify and operate functions in technology (chapter 4).
- The accessibility requirements, organised by functions or product features, rather than by commercial product or service categories (chapters 5 to 13).
- The description of which requirements of the Standard presume conformance with European Directive 2016/2012 (the Web Accessibility Directive) (annex A).
- A description of the relationship between requirements and functional performance statements (annex B).
Note: It is freely accessible at the website of ETSI. It may also be purchased from CEN National Members, CENELEC National Committees, CEN Affiliates and CENELEC Affiliates, where they might be available in more languages.