En abril del año pasado comenté por aquí que el Gobierno de España ya había aprobado el anteproyecto de ley que transpone la Directiva (UE) 2019/882 del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo, de 17 de abril de 2019, sobre los requisitos de accesibilidad de los productos y servicios, la llamada "Ley Europea de Accesibilidad". El objetivo de esta Directiva es:
Artículo 1
Objeto
El objetivo de la presente Directiva es contribuir al correcto funcionamiento del mercado interior mediante la aproximación de las disposiciones legales, reglamentarias y administrativas de los Estados miembros en lo relativo a los requisitos de accesibilidad exigibles a determinados productos y servicios, en particular eliminando y evitando los obstáculos a la libre circulación de productos y servicios derivados de las divergencias en los requisitos de accesibilidad en los Estados miembros.
Esta Directiva debía ser transpuesta a la legislación española antes del 28 de junio de 2022. Estamos a 8 de febrero de 2023 y todavía no ha sido transpuesta.
La transposición de esta Directiva estuvo abierta a consultas públicas previas durante el mes de diciembre de 2020 en CONSULTA PÚBLICA PREVIA ACERCA DE LA NORMA DE TRANSPOSICIÓN DE LA DIRECTIVA (UE) 2019/882 DEL PARLAMENTO EUROPEO Y DEL CONSEJO DE 17 DE ABRIL SOBRE LOS REQUISITOS DE ACCESIBILIDAD DE LOS PRODUCTOS Y SERVICIOS:
España ha incumplido el plazo máximo establecido por la Unión Europea para transponer al Derecho español la Directiva (UE) 2019/882 de 17 de abril de 2019 sobre los requisitos de accesibilidad de los productos y servicios, que vencía el pasado 28 de junio.
A pesar de que esta Directiva europea fue adoptada en 2019, con un generoso plazo de transposición, el Estado español ha infringido el límite máximo para convertir en derecho nacional este cuerpo normativo que establece unos parámetros comunes de accesibilidad a determinados bienes y servicios.
El incumplimiento por parte del Gobierno español, en concreto del Ministerio de Derechos Sociales y Agenda 2030, de este compromiso europeo expone a nuestro país a la apertura de un procedimiento de infracción por inobservancia de la legislación europea.
En el Boletín Oficial de las Cortes Generales del 17 de noviembre de 2022 aparece el proyecto de Ley de trasposición de Directivas de la Unión Europea en materia de accesibilidad de determinados productos y servicios.
Bueno, esperemos que se apruebe pronto esta ley que ya tiene más de 6 meses de retraso.
Según Plaintiffs Set a New Record for Website Accessibility Lawsuit Filings in 2022:
Seyfarth Synopsis: Plaintiffs filed 3,225 website accessibility lawsuits in federal court in 2022 – a 12% increase over 2021.
2022 was another record setting year for website accessibility lawsuits filed in federal court. The total number of lawsuits filed in federal court alleging that plaintiffs with a disability could not use websites because they were not designed to be accessible and/or work with assistive technologies in 2022 was 3,255–360 more than 2021. This 12% increase in the number of lawsuits in 2022 is just slightly lower than the 14% 2021 increase, and matches the 12% increase we saw in 2020. While these numbers pale by comparison to the explosion of cases we saw from 2017 to 2018 (an increase of 177%), the continued year-over-year increases are still very significant.
En Stock photos of people with disabilities se explica cómo encontrar fotografías de personas con discapacidad:
Slightly off topic, but if you’re seeking a stock photo including people with a disability, here is a list of resources. Please submit a comment if you know of any others!
On 7 December 2021, the W3C Accessible Guidelines Working Group published a Working Draft of the W3C Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0.So, that’s it, right? Pack WCAG 2 off to the junkyard? The standard is dead, long live the standard?Well, no.A Working Draft is published to invite feedback and goes through a lot of stages before it can be referred to as a standard. This particular draft has just six sample guidelines, where eventually there will be many, many more.Given the amount of content yet to be added, the incorporation of feedback and revision, and giving people time to wrap their heads around some fundamental changes from WCAG 2 to WCAG 3, it’s going to be several years before WCAG 3.0 becomes a W3C Recommendation and web standard.Remembering that WCAG 2.2 was originally slated for 2021 and by October 2022 had been pushed back to “early 2023”, WCAG 3.0 is unlikely to move out of draft status before 2025 at the very earliest, and quite probably a few years later than that.
Los poderes públicos realizarán una política de previsión, tratamiento, rehabilitación e integración de los disminuidos físicos, sensoriales y psíquicos a los que prestarán la atención especializada que requieran y los ampararán especialmente para el disfrute de los derechos que este Título otorga a todos los ciudadanos.
Candidate Recommendation: The main purpose of Candidate Recommendation is to ensure that WCAG 2.2 can be implemented. It is stable at this stage; however, it could change based on implementation experience. More about Candidate Recommendation and the process for completing WCAG 2.2 is in:How WAI Develops Accessibility Standards through the W3C Processhttps://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/w3c-process/
El Canal Fundación ONCE en UNED ofrece numerosos recursos sobre accesibilidad web. Algunos de los cursos que ofrece son:
En The 411 on 4.1.1 y en Deprecating SC 4.1.1 se comenta un posible cambio importante de WCAG 2.2:
There is a non-zero chance that WCAG Success Criterion 4.1.1 Parsing will go away in WCAG 2.2. This isn’t a problem for users, regardless of the problems it may pose for the WCAG process, ACT rules, automated testing tools, or ossified testing processes.
[...]
Today there are roughly three schools of thought on flagging 4.1.1 issues in a web review. The first is to only flag them when they impact users. The second is to log everything without defining the impact on users. The third is to move user-impacting issues under other Success Criteria that are a better fit (which is my approach). This post builds on the third approach.
Starting with Zoom Meetings, there will be a new designation for Sign Language Interpretation. A host can select multiple participants in a meeting to speak through a sign language interpreter for those who need it. In turn, people can select which of the interpreters they want to watch.
Similar to a recent Zoom update, the new Sign Language View feature allows Microsoft Teams users to choose up to two other video feeds to be centered in the app, making sign language interpreters much more visible throughout the whole meeting.[...]Sign Language View can be enabled for all meetings or on a case-by-case. Interpreters who work in the same company as you can be pre-assigned before a meeting, something you can do via the Settings menu. This way, when you enter a meeting with an interpreter, the view will already be activated.Signers can be added mid-meeting with the “Manage signers” button found on the new Accessibility pane. Clicking the button allows you to designate a participant as an interpreter just by typing in their name. And through the pane, you can toggle both the Sign Language View and Live Captions mid-meeting, as well.
On November 21, 2022, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a proposed consent decree with the University of California (UC), Berkeley, addressing alleged violations of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).A consent decree is a legal agreement to resolve a dispute without the admission of guilt or liability.UC Berkeley maintains an online library with thousands of hours of content that includes videos, podcasts, and free online courses. However, the Justice Department alleged that many of those materials weren’t accessible for people with disabilities — and under the Biden administration, the DOJ has stepped up enforcement of alleged ADA web accessibility violations.“By entering into this consent decree, UC Berkeley will make its content accessible to the many people with disabilities who want to participate in and access the same online educational opportunities provided to people without disabilities,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a press release.
The DOJ cited missing alternative text, captions, and transcripts as major issues while also noting that some of the university’s content was “formatted in a way that does not allow individuals with disabilities to access the content using screen readers or other assistive technology.”Importantly, the alleged violations are not restricted to UC Berkeley’s official website. The DOJ’s press release notes that the consent decree — which requires court approval — will apply to all of the institution’s content, regardless of where that content is hosted.The three-and-a-half-year long agreement will apply to:
- All courses hosted on UC BerkeleyX, the university’s online learning platform.
- Video and podcast content, including media posted to YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and other third-party platforms.
- All UC Berkeley conferences, lectures, sporting events, and other events available to the public through the university’s website and other platforms.
UC Berkeley has also agreed to revise its policies, train personnel, designate a web accessibility coordinator, and hire independent auditors to evaluate the accessibility of its online content.
Más información en Berkeley (Finally) Agrees to Make Online Content Accessible.
El Web Almanac 2022 contiene un resumen de los datos recogidos por el HTTP Archive. Este trabajo contiene 22 capítulos y el capítulo 11 está dedicado a la accesibilidad. Su contenido es:
Introduction
Ease of reading
Color contrast
Zooming and scaling
Language identification
User preference
Forced colors mode
Navigation
Focus indication
Focus styles
tabindex
Landmarks
Heading hierarchy
Secondary navigation
Skip links
Document titles
Tables
Forms
<label> element
placeholder attribute
Requiring information
Captchas
Media on the web
Images
Audio and video
Assistive technology with ARIA
ARIA roles
Using the presentation role
Labeling elements with ARIA
Hiding content
Screen reader-only text
Dynamically-rendered content
Accessibility apps and overlays
Concerns with overlays
Conclusion
En Twitter Was a Lifeline for People With Disabilities. Musk’s Reign Is Changing All of That se analiza el impacto que Twitter ha tenido en algunas personas con discapacidad y cómo ven con alarma los cambios para mal que está experimentando en los últimos días.
Algunos de las cosas que podemos leer en este artículo:
One such user is Stephanie Tait, an author, speaker, and disability advocate who suffers from multiple chronic health issues related to Lyme disease. “There are a lot of people joking about how Twitter going away would be for the best because everyone would go outside and touch grass,” she says. “What’s difficult for our community is that we’re here trying to get people to understand that for some of us, that’s not an option.”
[...]
For Karli Drew, a writer, creator, and activist with nearly 20,000 followers who was born with a progressive neuromuscular disorder called spinal muscular atrophy, Twitter has been the source of a ton of career opportunities. She says that one change Musk already tried to institute—charging $8 a month for verification—was a threat to the livelihood of some users with disabilities.
[...]
That has allowed people with disabilities and other marginalized groups that experience discrimination and exclusion to build community in a way that isn’t possible on other platforms, Tait says. “When you have certain kinds of disabilities, especially when you have diagnoses that are not as common, you need sheer numbers to even have the odds of potentially finding somebody with the same condition as you,” she says. “Twitter’s made it a lot easier to find people that you have no connection to at all and say, ‘Hey, we have similar symptoms or similar diagnoses, or you’ve reached a diagnosis and I haven’t, or you have research that you’ve already done and that research is going to be really important to me now.'”
[...]
For Oyewole, Twitter has played an essential role in growing the online business that enables her to support herself. “I can’t work most jobs because I’m disabled and by being on Twitter, I’m able to promote my business quite easily,” she says. “Other platforms require you to pay so your work can be seen. But with Twitter, it can gain a lot of reach through support from your followers.”
