Letter of understanding
Madrid (Spain), Paris (France) - 11 December 2006
published on http://www.accessiweb.org


- Fundosa Teleservicios[1]
having its registered office at 16 Albasanz 28037 Madrid – Spain

of the one part,

- BrailleNet Association[2]
having its registered office at UPMC B23, 9, quai Saint Bernard, 75005 Paris – France

of the other part,


HAVE AGREED to the following terms established in this letter of understanding.


The parties observe that:

- the access to Web is a key factor for the inclusion of people with disabilities,
- the work done by the W3C/WAI[3] is the ground for the actions on Web Accessibility,
- the WCAG guidelines[4] are as de facto the standards for Web Accessibility,
- they have got a solid experience in WCAG conformity assessment of websites with their labels AccessiWeb[5] (BrailleNet) and Sello de Accessibilidad[6] (Fundosa Teleservicios).


The parties agree on the following objectives:

- to support the policy in favour of eAccessibility decided by the EC and the Member States (EC communication : COM2005 425 on 25 September 2005)[7],
- to implement the results of the Support-EAM[8] and WAB Cluster[9] projects: CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) n°15554[10] and the Unified Web Evaluation Methodology[11] (UWEM),
- to establish a framework for the mutual recognition of their Web Accessibility labels,
- to create an European Web Accessibility Quality Label based on UWEM,
- to act as an independent party for Web sites inspection as specified in the CWA n°15554 under free market conditions,
- to make all efforts to significantly increase the number of accessible Web sites in France and Spain,
- to launch an European movement on Web Accessibility harmonisation based on their labels to the creation of a European label.
- to join their efforts to explore the establishment of a comprehensive European Web Accessibility Quality Mark as specified in the CWA n°15554 and its Implementation Plan.


The parties agree on the following methodological coherence:

- to publish and maintain a correspondence table between their methodologies and UWEM, making clear the mapping between the both, especially the correspondence to the levels A and AA of UWEM,
- to apply a common procedure about Web Accessibility assessment and labelling procedures as specified in the Implementation Plan of the CWA n°15554.


References:
[1] Fundosa Teleservicios: http://www.technosite.es/
[2] BrailleNet Association: http://www.braillenet.org/
[3] W3C/WAI: http://www.w3.org/WAI/
[4] WCAG guidelines: http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php
[5] AccessiWeb label: http://www.accessiweb.org/fr/Label_Accessibilite/
[6] Sello de Accessibilidad: http://www.technosite.es/auditoria.asp
[7] EC communication (COM2005 425 on 25 September 2005): http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2005/com2005_0425en01.pdf
[8] Support-EAM: http://www.support-eam.org/
[9] WAB Cluster: http://www.wabcluster.org/
[10] CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) n°15554: http://www.cenorm.be/cenorm/businessdomains/businessdomains/isss/cwa/design+for+all+in+ict.asp
[11] UWEM: http://www.wabcluster.org/uwem1/