The e-inclusion subgroup is chaired by the European Commission (unit ICT for inclusion, DG Information Society and Media) and is composed by national civil servants from European countries involved in e-inclusion policy. The e-inclusion subgroup reports to the i2010 High-Level Group; see http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/einclusion/groups/ind.... The main points discussed were:

1 Web accessibility: National specifications and guidelines; Approaches and tools for implementation; Monitoring and certification at national and European level

The Commission presented the results from a recent study comparing policies on web accessibility and measuring levels of compliance in several European countries; see http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/einclusion/library/st... .

Then, national representatives reported their experiences in implementing web accessibility specifications and discussed about the way forward. Several countries have already adopted or foreseen measures to implement WCAG 2.0. There are differences in national approaches as to the exact reference specifications (e.g. sometimes a mix from WCAG 1.0 and 2.0, in other cases specifications from other sources like the US 508 Act are considered), and the implementation measures in place, including different forms of support and control. The challenges of interpreting and implementing in practice WCAG 2.0, as well as the need for complementing or further elaborating these guidelines in some cases, were also stressed at the meeting.

The Commission reminded the various European activities existing or planned to further support cooperation on web accessibility amongst European countries, notably: mandate 376, support under the ICT Policy Support Programme, studies, e-practice. The upcoming digital agenda (the new European strategy on the information society, to succeed the current i2010 by mid 2010) may also address web accessibility.

2 Other aspects of e-accessibility: Policy context; Follow-up of Communication "towards and accessible information society" (COM (2008))

Several countries reported on their initiatives on e-accessibility and the Commission updated on recent important developments, notably:

- The follow-up process on the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, which addresses amongst other new technologies (including ICT and assistive technologies), with strong focus on their accessibility, availability and affordability.

- The preparation of the "EU disability strategy 2020" and the Commission proposal for a horizontal Directive on non-discrimination, which deals with equal rights to access all product and services, also ICT, and contains an article on persons with disabilities.

- The revised EU regulatory framework on electronic communications (ex-telecoms), which reinforces the provisions on persons with disabilities, and other relevant pieces of European legislation, e.g. the "audio-visual media services" Directive contains a provisions on persons with disabilities.

- Standardisation work, notably mandate 376 but also other accessibility mandates, European funding opportunities (on research, deployment, etc), ongoing and recent European studies on e-accessibility (some of which are reported about in this e-practice community).

3 Follow-up of previous subgroup works; next steps in e-Inclusion policy

The Commission updated on the follow-up of the "Limassol report" on future e-inclusion policy (see http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/einclusion/groups/lim...) and on various developments, including the "EU2020" and the "European digital agenda", and several European studies on e-inclusion. Then, several countries reported about national e-inclusion initiatives.

The next meeting of the i2010 e-inclusion subgroup is foreseen in October 2010.