techblog 

Euroaccessibility.org is a consortium of european organisations that has been around for a good few years now. The members are most of europe, with the UK’s individual contributors being Ability Net (www.abilitynet.org.uk), RNIB (www.rnib.org.uk), and RNID (www.rnid.org.uk. Their objectives are (taken from their website):

• Avoid the risks of fragmentation of the WAI outcomes
• Develop testing methodology based on the W3C/WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• Set up a common certification methodology of Web sites
• Create an Accessibility Quality Mark based on common rules
• Establish a certification authority for Web Accessibility
• Set up a European network of regional consulting desks
• Develop an harmonised set of supporting services over Europe
• Disseminate best practices in accessibility evaluation
• Significantly increase the number of accessible Web sites

The important one I believe is ‘Set up a common certification methodology of Web sites‘.
This is obviously going to set (at last) a common framework for developers of online content to work to. But should that be ‘european developers of online content’? Is europe going to lead the way? Doesn’t North America have some strong views on developing for accessibility? Will non-european developers just do their own thing?

The consortium is working with W3C, so hopefully this is just a case of someone taking a lead in the absence of any standard.