MeAC – Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe

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

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 web sites 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 Spain, as measured in 2008, were as follows:

• 3 out of 5 of the selected public web sites passed the automatic evaluation.
• 2 out of 6 of the private/sectoral web sites passed 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 Spain the following situation was identified in 2008:

• The main emergency number (112 or other) was directly accessible by means of text telephones (2007 data).
• A text relay service and a video relay service were available.
• The two main mobile telephony operators provided eAccessibility related information to customers with disabilities via their websites. And both of them offered models that are labeled as hearing aid compatible via this 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 this sales channel.

Broadcasting

To ensure that people with disabilities can access and enjoy TV broadcast programs in the same manner than 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 visual impairments. As regards their availability in Spain, the following was found out by the MeAC study in 2008:

• Of the two main public TV channels, in 2007
  • both provided programs with subtitling. In terms of volumes provided, these programs amounted to 75% and 90% respectively of their overall programs although the coverage of national language programmes is not clear.
  • both provide programs with signing. In terms of volumes provided in 2007, these programs amounted to 5% and 15% respectively of their overall programs.
  • none provided programs with audio description in 2007.
• Of the two main commercial TV channels, in 2007
  • both provide programs with subtitling. In terms of volumes provided, these programs amounted to 20% and 12% respectively of their overall programs although the coverage of national language programmes is not clear.
  • none provided programs with signing in 2007.
  • none provided programs with audio description in 2007.

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 Spain, the following was found by the MeAC study in 2008:

• Of the two main retail banks operating in the country, neither bank had installed talking ATMs.
• One other bank was identified that had deployed at least some (31) “talking” ATMs (2007 data).

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