MeAC – Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe

Legislation/regulations

The ‘Stanca’ Law No. 4 of 9th January 2004, along with the related decrees and regulations, is the main law on eAccessibility in Italy. The law states that everyone has the right to share the benefits of the Information Society and eGovernment, that public administrations have the duty to provide accessible information and services on their websites (and also invites private entities to do likewise) and that accessibility requirements must be taken into account in public procurements of ICTs. It also states that the accessibility enforcement policies must be monitored and fostered at both national and local level. The law covers public services and private organisations in so far as they deliver public services.

Two subsequent decrees implemented the Law: the Decree of the President of the Republic (March 1, 2005, No.75) containing the Implementation Regulations, and the Ministerial Decree (July 8, 2005) containing the Technical Rules. The technical requirements were drafted with a view to having a shared consensus with associations and companies and also to be compliant with international recommendations (ISO, W3C, Section 508 etc.). They can be periodically updated whenever relevant changes are made to international accessibility rules. An assessment methodology was also developed. Public administrations may carry out a self-assessment or use a third-party from a list of officially recognised evaluators.

The main provisions regarding public websites are:

• public administrations cannot draw up, modify or renew contacts for the development and maintenance of websites if they fail to respect the accessibility requirements
• all existing contracts must be updated to meet such requirements within twelve months
• any stipulated contract failing to respect such requirements shall be declared null and void, and
• failure to comply with the law may entail both executive responsibilities and disciplinary actions, as well as any civil liability provided for by the current anti-discrimination law

The ‘Stanca’ Law refers to accessibility of private websites and invites them to address this issue. The law is reported to have increased awareness about the importance of accessible websites and services, both amongst consumers and private sector organisations (products and services suppliers).

Other initiatives

The public agency CNIPA (Centro Nazionale per l’Informatica nella Pubblica Amministrazione – National Centre for IT in Government) designed the implementation rules for the Stanca law, including the general operational and organisational practices for achieving accessibility, the procedures for conformity assessment, and the market surveillance methods. CNIPA provides a key support role in the implementation of these measures through both advice and monitoring, and maintains the national accessibility label database. Training is also organised, including the establishment of regional competence centres. In addition, an annual competition is held (PA Aperta) which rewards best practice in eAccessibility and other relevant fields.

There is no mandatory third party certification for websites, but CNIPA has set up a voluntary assessment scheme for websites which results in an accessibility logo. The Regulation distinguishes between the assessment of conformity to technical requirements (carried out by technical specialists according to objective specifications) and the subjective evaluation of accessibility, carried out by accessibility experts and/or disabled users on the basis of more qualitative parameters. The accessibility logo varies depending on the type of evaluation passed by a website. Although the certification is not mandatory, public administration agencies / organisations with accessible public websites usually decide to show the logo since it is a part of their communication strategy with the citizens. This is partly the result of the recent re-organisation of the Italian public administration that is also based on the concept of citizen-orientation.

CNIPA is not responsible for local administrations, though such administrations are also required to be accessible under the Law. Italy is developing regional competence centres (CRCs) that will have the goal to develop training and education in the field of implementation of public website accessibility.

Historically, the first official document that set the criteria and tools for accessibility of public websites was the ‘Circolare AIPA 6 Settrembre 2001’ entitled ‘Disposizioni dell’Autorità per l’Informatica nella Pubblica Amministrazione in relazione all’accessibilità dei siti web’. The criteria in this document are the WAI WCAG 1.0. The document defines the concepts of disability and accessibility. This was the first step towards the current legislation on accessibility.

A Directive of the President of the Council of Ministers dated 30th May 2002 presented the national portal Italia.gov.it and set out that the portal will be accessible with WAI criteria; it also uses criteria of usability. All the websites that wish to use the same domain must follow the same accessibility criteria. The portal is one of the main measures in Italian e-government policy and sets the concepts of usability and accessibility of the public online services.

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