Follow global initiatives

The European Union is providing a lot of leadership for governments that prioritize accessibility. The Web Accessibility Directive forces member states to measure their accessibility barriers by: Identifying the barriers in existing Information Communications Technology (ICT) through automated accessibility monitoring, and creating feedback loops through accessibility statements. Commit to being transparent and accountable by regularly publishing results which allow constituents to see progress on our inclusion goals.

They are also investing in prevention by participating in and leading initiatives that make implementing accessibility easier for everyone. The European Commission is investing in initiatives like the We4Authors Cluster which is making it easier for everyone to have more accessible sites. Bringing together a common Content Management System (CMS) and improving the authoring tools can have a huge impact.

While we have yet to uniformly implement global accessibility standards, the European Commission strategy has started working more closely with the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) to implement best practices.

A handful of organizations are sponsoring WAI projects. This public-facing work both contributes to the practice of open government, and ensures that the tools they develop can be maintained by a broader community.

Checklist Anchor link

• Monitor the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative for new policies, resources and tools.
• Follow the UK's Government Digital Services actively blog about their work.
• Check the latest WAI WCAG Recommendation to see what will give you the best guidance.

Key questions Anchor link

• Is your organization able to sponsor the groups like the WAI which are building best practices?
• Are there initiatives like WCAG 3.0 which are seeking input?
• Are there organizations similar to yours which are doing inspiring work?