MeAC – Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe

Below are the results of the MeAC eAccessibility status measurement for Italy.

Websites

The MeAC survey assessed the accessibility of a similar sample of 12 key websites in each of the EU Member States, as well as the USA, Canada and Australia. These included 6 key public websites (national government, national parliament, and key ministries such as social, employment, health and education) and 6 key sectoral/commercial websites (e.g. railways, TV, newspapers, retail banking). All websites were evaluated against WCAG 1.0 Level A criteria, including both automatic and manual evaluation. (For methodological details see Annex II of the project report).

The results for Italy, as measured in 2008, were as follows:

• 1 out of 6 of the selected public websites passed the automatic evaluation, but none passed both the automatic and the manual evaluations
• none of the sectoral/commercial websites passed even the automatic evaluation

Telecoms

Utilization of telecoms services and equipment can pose a variety of accessibility challenges for different disability groups. For the purposes of the MeAC study the availability of a number of selected accessibility provisions was surveyed in each of the 27 countries. In Italy the following situation was identified in 2008:

• The main emergency number (112 or other) was not directly accessible by means of text telephones
• A text relay service and a video relay service were available
• Of the two main mobile telephony operators, neither provided eAccessibility-related information to customers with disabilities via their website. Neither of them offered models that are labeled as hearing aid compatible via their online sales channel
• Of the two main land line telephony operators, one operator provided eAccessibility-related information to customers with disabilities via its website. One operator offered models that are labeled as hearing aid compatible via their online sales channel

Broadcasting

To ensure that people with disabilities can access and enjoy TV broadcast programs in the same manner as everyone else, a variety of accessibility provisions need to be made available, including subtitling and sign language interpretation for people with hearing impairments and audio description for people with vision impairments. As regards their availability in Italy, the following situation was found by the MeAC study in 2008:

• Of the two main public TV channels (operated by the same broadcaster), in 2007
  • both provided some national language programs with subtitling. Overall, the broadcaster’s programs provided with subtitling amounted to 28% and 90%, respectively, of its two channels’ national language programming
  • both provided some programs with signing. Overall, the broadcaster’s programs provided with signing were estimated not to exceed 1% of its overall programming (information on individual channels was not available)
  • none provided programs with audio description
• Of the two main commercial TV channels, in 2007
  • both provided some national language programs with subtitling
  • one of them provided some programs with signing
  • none provided programs with audio description

Self- service terminals

The utilisation of standard self-service terminals can pose various accessibility challenges to different groups. In the banking sector, for instance automatic teller machines (ATMs) which are designed to meet the needs of vision impaired people are now being manufactured. Usually referred to as “talking” ATMs, such machines have a voice output option via headphones and/or external loud speakers.

As regards the availability of such banking terminals in Italy, the following situation was found by the MeAC study in 2008:

• Of the two main retail banks operating in the country, both banks have installed some talking ATMs. By mid 2008, 1100 “talking” ATMs were deployed by one bank (amongst an overall installed base of 6557 machines at that time). Another 1500 “talking” ATMs were planned to be deployed in the short term. The bank also provided information on the location of “talking” ATMs via its website. The other main retail bank deployed 25 “talking” ATMs (amongst the overall installed base of 5250 machines at that time)
• Some other banks had also deployed some “talking” ATMs in Italy at that time

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