Public procurement
Legislation/regulations
The revised EU Public Procurement Directive 2004/18/EC has been transposed on 22 June, 2006, via Statutory Instrument (SI No. 329 of 2006). It includes provisions for accessibility.
Under Part 5 – Specific rules governing specifications and contract documents – Article 23(2) states:
- In awarding a public contract, a contracting authority shall, as far as practicable, ensure that the technical specifications for the contract take account of the need to prescribe accessibility criteria for all persons who are likely to use the relevant works, products or service, particularly those who have disabilities.
Under Schedule 3: Definition of certain technical specifications, it specifies that: - “Technical specification”, when used in relation to a public supply or service contract, means a specification in a document defining the required characteristics if a product or service, such as quality levels, environmental performance levels, design for all requirements (including accessibility for disabled persons)…”
The way the EU legislation was transposed appears to be conducive to promote eAccessibility to public procurement in Ireland.
The Disability Act 2005, under Part 3, Section 27, requires public bodies to ensure that the goods and services that they purchase are accessible, unless it would not be practicable or justifiable on cost grounds or would result in an unreasonable delay.
Other initiatives
The NDA has developed a draft ICT Procurement Toolkit that provides assistance with the writing of requests for tender and guidance on what technical specifications and accessibility targets to choose. The toolkit addresses: web technologies, public access terminals, application software, telecoms and Smartcard technologies, as well as guidance on all aspects of the inclusion of accessibility in the procurement process.
Learn. Share. Contribute.
We are interested in receiving any corrections and/or additional information that may help us to update or improve our understanding of the current state of affairs in this country concerning the consideration of accessibility criteria in public procurement of ICTs. This may concern information on relevant legislation, other policies and/or the level of accessibility actually achieved. Please enter your contribution in the “Leave a Reply” box below or send an e-mail to meac at empirica dot com.
- To avoid SPAM-abuse of the e-mail address the ‘@’ sign was written as ‘a t’ and each dot ‘.’ as ‘d o t’.
Please change the recipient address of your message accordingly. We apologize for this inconvenience.
