Reference: Mandate M/376 
The aim of the mandate M/376 is to enable the use of public procurement and practice for ICT´s to remove barriers to participation in the Information Society by disabled and older people. The mandate was given by the European Commission to the European Standards Organisations (ESOs) to come up with a solution for common requirements and conformance assessment. The mandated work will happen in 2 phases. Phase 1 is about the production of an Inventory of European and international accessibility requirements and assessment of suitable testing and conformity schemes. The actual standardisation activities (with among others the production of an EN specifying for all ICT products and services within each of the technical areas the corresponding requirements for accessibility) will take place in Phase 2.
The information below applies only to phase 1.
The work in CEN, CENELEC and ETSI in relation the Mandate M/376 will take place in 3 technical bodies:
CEN BT Working Group 185, CLC BT Working Group 101-5 and ETSI TC/HF (note: BT stands for Bureau Technique or Technical Board)
All deliverables produced under this Mandate M/376 will require approval in the 3 technical bodies, each of which will operate under the rules of their parent organization (in CEN and CLC, this means participation based on national representation, in ETSI, this is through direct participation of the ETSI members).
The drafting of the documents that will form the basis of the consensus process in the 3 technical bodies will be done by paid teams of selected experts. These teams are in CEN´s terminology called Project Teams (PTs) and in ETSI's terminology Specialist Task Forces (STFs). Funding for these experts has been made available through 2 Grant Agreements which were signed between the Commission on the one hand and CEN or ETSI on the other hand. Each of the respective Grant Agreements provide funding to pay for the selected experts recruited to the PT in CEN and the STF in ETSI.
It should not be forgotten that it is the technical bodies in CEN, CENELEC and ETSI who will decide on the contents required in the various reports and who will approve the reports. The PT and STF will produce consecutive versions of the various draft reports, on behalf of the supervisory technical bodies.
The CEN PT will present an analysis on testing and conformity schemes of products and services meeting accessibility requirements. The analysis shall refer to existing schemes of this nature at the European and international level. The analysis shall consider the full range of possible solutions, including supplier self-declaration, certification/ accreditation of suppliers, and third party certification schemes. The analysis shall also address existing or propose requirements for suppliers' technical capacities and abilities in the accessibility domain, which can be used for the selection of suppliers or in support of the conformity process."
The ETSI STF will produce:
(a) An inventory of ICT products and services (grouped in technical areas) that are usually bought by public procurers which will cover at least the ICT products addressed in Section 508 and Canadian toolkit. Other ICT products may be added if identified as bought by public administrations.
(b) A list of existing functional accessibility requirements in Member States and internationally for those ICT products and services within each technical area, particularly those currently in use in public procurement. The requirements will cover the concepts of "Design for All" and "Assistive Technology".
(c) In each technical area gaps will be identified where no accessibility requirements exist and suggestions will be provided for developing missing or additional requirements.
(d) A list of existing national, European and international standards and technical specifications (in the sense of Directive 98/34) will be identified which might comply with those requirements. An assessment will be made on whether the above mentioned requirements can be used as either technical specifications or as criteria for awarding public contracts (in the sense of the Public Procurement Directives).
A proposal will be made for a standardization work programme for the development of requirements and award criteria that still do not exist or that are not yet standardized or where the existing requirements are not considered adequate or suitable as either technical specification or award criteria. The work program will provide an indication of the types of standardisation deliverables best suited to carry out the work described in phase II of the Mandate.
It is possible to contribute to the work of the mandate in a number of ways.
If you belong to an ETSI member company, you can directly contribute to the discussions in ETSI/TC HF.
In order to participate in meetings of the CEN and CENELEC BT Working Groups, you have to contact your national standards body, who will decide the national delegates to the Working Groups. But direct participation (without the need to be recorded as a national delegate) will also be made possible for important stakeholders such as EDF, EBU, etc.
Another way to contribute is by commenting directly to the leaders of the ETSI STF and CEN PT. Information on how to do so is on the project’s web-sites:
ETSI STF: http://portal.etsi.org/stfs/STF_HomePages/STF333/STF333.asp and
CEN PT: http://www.econformance.eu .