ITU-T Workshop on
“Telecommunications relay services for persons with disabilities ”
(Geneva, 25 November 2011)
How accessibility-focused public procurement can be used to improve the quality of future relay services
Mike Pluke,
Leader of Specialist Task
Force STF416
Geneva, 25 November 2011

What is ETSI (1)?
A European standards organization
Officially recognized by EU & EFTA
Setting globally-applicable standards for
Telecommunications, in general
Radio communications, especially mobile
Broadcasting, and
Related topics
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

What is ETSI (2)?
Active in all areas of ICT
An independent, non-profit organization, created in 1988
Offering direct participation of all members
ETSI has more than 15,000 publications available for free!
Geneva, 25 November 2011
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How to ensure that a relay service meets the needs of its users?
Simple answer:
1) Find a source of requirements that define what such a service needs to deliver.
2) Follow the requirements laid out in that source.
The service should always be tested after this, but that is another story …
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

Europe has a suitable source
In 2009 ETSI published
ES 202 975 (V1.2.1): "Human Factors
(HF); Harmonized relay services“
“It is intended to give information suitable for incorporation into contracts between commissioning agents and service providers.” (ES 202 975 Scope)
This was the result of a long and thorough programme of work …
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

The provenance of ES 202 975 (1)
In June 2000 a Technical Report
(TR 101 806) was published: it covered relay services for text telephones and was based on NFTH
4/1998: "Nordic guidelines for
Telecommunications relay services“ and actual US experience of running relay services
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

The provenance of ES 202 975 (2)
ETSI saw the need to consider a wider range of relay service types
(some not yet implemented) changes in the available technology changes in the telecommunications environment (many parties may be involved - not just a national operator) what operational relay services existed in Europe and internationally
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

The provenance of ES 202 975 (4)
As ES 202 975 was intended for use in procurement it needed to build on the extensive work done for
TR 101 806 include performance targets that are realistically achievable
ETSI members provided feedback that ensured that ES 202 975 met its objectives
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

Breadth of relay services
ES 202 975 gives requirements for: text relay services speech to speech relay services sign relay services lipreading relay services captioned telephony services text to text services facsimile relay services
Geneva, 25 November 2011
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Providing a standard is not enough
It is currently unlikely that all new
European relay services will follow ES
202 975 because: there is no guarantee that those specifying relay services know that
ES 202 975 exists if they know of ES 202 975 there is no requirement that they should follow it
Enter Mandate M 376 …
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

What Mandate M 376 is
M 376 is a standards mandate to the
European Standards Organisations
CEN, CENELEC and ETSI
Its remit is
"European Accessibility Requirements for Public Procurement of Products and
Services in the ICT Domain"
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

What Mandate M 376 delivers
M 376 will introduce technical requirements and test methods for eAccessibility which will apply to all ICT products and services sold to the European Public sector
(in EN 301 549) details of conformity assessment related to these requirements an on-line toolkit
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

Motivations for M 376
Inclusion of people with disabilities
Ageing society and workforce
Fragmentation of technical requirements
Access to skilled workforce who may be barred from entry to employment
UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

Why M 376 work is important
This EC/EFTA co-funded work will lead to common eAccessibility requirements across the EU/EFTA
It aims to minimise conflicts with existing accessibility requirements
It will support and enable developing
European policy
It encourages eAccessibility through public procurement
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

The M 376 Work and Standard
An ETSI Specialist Task Force
(STF416) and a CEN Project Team are jointly doing the work
STF416 will deliver
EN 301 549: “Human Factors (HF);
Accessibility requirements for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe” providing functional accessibility requirements necessary for the public procurement of ICT
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

Mandate 376 and relay services (1)
The latest draft of the standard (EN) has a requirement that states that publicly procured communications systems:
"shall not prevent access to relay services for incoming and outgoing calls so as to achieve functionally equivalent communication access by persons with disabilities."
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

Mandate 376 and relay services (2)
The latest draft of the EN also has a requirement for public bodies wishing to procure relay services that: directly points to the clauses of ES 202
975 that apply to the type of relay service being procured allows the procuring body to specify key service variants that they want e.g. specify a 24 hour or limited hour service
(such options are built into ES 202 975)
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

M 376 puts ES 202 975 in the spotlight
The EC is proposing that including accessibility requirements in public procurement should be mandatory
EN 301 549 will be the source of those requirements
Referencing ES 202 975 from the EN: places an obligation on those procuring relay services to include the ES 202 975 requirements in their calls for tenders
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

Acknowledgements
All of the ETSI work on relay services has been led by Wally Mellors
If you need to understand more of the background to the work, please contact him at: wjmellors@btconnect.com
There’s nothing he doesn’t know about the subject!
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

How to monitor or contribute to M376
By commenting on the drafts at www.mandate376.eu
Via your National (European) Standards Body your trade association (Digital Europe for the
European ICT sector) user and consumer organisations your (European) government procurement body
By contacting the Joint Working Group directly at accessibility@aenor.es
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Geneva, 25 November 2011

Thank you for your attention
For further information on Mandate
376 activity or the work of the ETSI
Human Factors Technical Committee please contact me at:
Mike.Pluke@castle-consult.com
And a reminder that Wally Mellors
(the ETSI relay services guru) can be contacted at: wjmellors@btconnect.com
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Geneva, 25 November 2011