ABSTRACT
This became a point of contention between civil society groups and industrial representative bodies such as the European Information & Communications Technology Industry Association (EICTA, now Digital Europe; EICTA 2005). The European ICT industry was vocal in its opposition to any such measures and advocated a system of self-declaration of conformity similar to the system of Voluntary Accessibility Product Templates, or VPATs, in place in America. Developed under a voluntary initiative led by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) in cooperation with the US Access Board, a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is information provided by a manufacturer on how their products comply with the Section 508 standards. EICTA’s clear line was that thirdparty certification would undermine innovation and restrict development in a fast growing and evolving sector such as the ICT industry. Acting as facilitator in this debate, the Commission convened a workshop in March 2006 on ‘Demonstrating Conformance with eAccessibility Requirements in ICT Products and Services’ in which both sides presented their case in conjunction with views from third countries such as USA and Canada (European Commission). No resolution was identified during the workshop. Projects funded under the Framework Programmes researched and produced detailed proposal for a European Observatory (Burger and Guillou 2006). This resulted in a number of certification schemes and accessibility labels maintained and offered by web consultancy companies and disability organizations.18 However, it ultimately failed to produce a commonly accepted third-party certification or labelling scheme for the web in Europe.
