MeAC – Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe

Legislation/regulations

The General Telecommunications Law 11/1998 introduces the measures for disabled persons to get equivalent services as available to the rest of users. It establishes a set of obligations on the operators and a set of rights for the consumer. According to Law 11/98 operators must offer a universal access for people with disabilities or special needs. This law also defines the “Universal Telecommunication service” as an open and dynamic concept, so that the Government has the right to assess and expand its meaning according to the development of the Information Society.

The Telecoms Act, 32/2003 implements the EU directives. One of the Act’s main objectives and principles is to defend the interests and to satisfy the needs of people with disabilities. Users with a disability must have access to fixed phone services and other aspects of universal service under the same conditions as users without disabilities.

The regulation that develops the 32/2003 Act imposes, amongst others, the following specific obligations on operators:

• Ensure enough and technologically updated offer of special terminals adapted to the different types of disability
• Make the “yellow pages” guide available in an accessible format and include 10 free monthly calls for blind people
• Make invoices and contractual conditions available in Braille

The Royal Decree 1494/2007 of November 12th, which is linked to the equality Law 51/2003, imposes further obligations on telecoms operators. The Decree concerns the basic access conditions for people with disabilities to technologies, products and services related to the information society and media. Under the Royal Decree, telecoms operators and service providers must make “reasonable adjustments to enable access by disabled people to customer service.” For those with vision impairments, telecoms operators must provide subscribers with visual impairment, at their request, in accessible formats and conditions, contracts, invoices, and other information supplied to all subscribers” (Article 3).

The Decree also sets out additional obligations on the Universal Service Obligation designated provider to:

• Submit plans for the adaptation of public payphones for ease of accessibility for disabled users
• Guarantee a sufficient supply of special terminals tailored to different types of disabilitilities, such as text telephones, video phones or solutions for people with vision impairments
• Provide access to telephone directories across the internet in an accessible format

With regard to mobile phone services, Article 4 of the Royal Decree sets out that the Government will, through the Centre for Personal Autonomy and Technical Assistance, “promote the existence of a sufficient supply and technologicaly updated special mobile terminals adapted to different types of disabilities.”
Access to telecommunication services by people with disabilities and special needs can be a condition for granting licenses for telecommunication networks. However there are no examples of specific obligations being imposed on any telecom service provider in this regard.

It is also reported that a legal obligation to apply special tariffs to disabled users exists.

Other initiatives

In Spain, there are alternative service providers for fixed voice services, payphone services and directory enquiry services. The intermediation centre gives disabled users a freedom to choose the service provider.
Text Telephone development and availability is being addressed through collaboration between IMSERSO, the national confederation of deaf people, Airtel Foundation and Nokia Spain.

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