More than 15% of the European population is affected, to varying degrees, by disability, i.e. 80 million people out of 510 million Europeans. This number is expected to rise to 120 million by 2020.
On November 8, 2018, the European Parliament and Council reached an agreement on the European Accessibility Act.
The European Act specifies, in particular, the goods and services that must be accessible to people with disabilities, but without requiring specific technical solutions. Companies are invited to innovate.
The list of affected products and services includes:
- ticket vending machines and automatic check-in kiosks;
- ATMs and other payment terminals;
- computers and operating systems;
- smartphones, tablets and TV equipment;
- consumer banking ;
- e-books and specialized software;
- E-commerce;
- air, road, rail and maritime transport services, including real-time information.
