Santander Bank Polska and the Visible Foundation create a forum to discuss accessibility of goods and services
The Business Accessibility Forum (BAF) is a partnership initiative of the Visible Foundation, Santander Bank Polska, Allegro, Microsoft Polska and Orange Polska. The Forum will provide a platform for discussion and experience sharing to better respond to the obligations of the European Accessibility Act.
By June 2022, Poland is obliged to develop and adopt new legislation on the accessibility of goods and services of commercial entities, imposed on all EU member states by the European Accessibility Act (EAA). It extends the obligations to bring products and services up to accessibility standards into a wide range of business areas, such as banking, transport, telecommunications, e-commerce, audio-visual services, e-books, emergency communications, the market surveillance system and the digital area.
The aim of the BAF is to collaborate and inspire each other in developing and promoting best standards and good practices in accessing services offered via the internet for people with individual needs, including related education. In addition to the founding organisations, BAF members will include leaders from the various market sectors covered by the EAA.
The implementation of the new accessibility legislation is a big challenge for business, but also for legislators. Within the BAF, we want to create a win-win situation so that accessibility benefits everyone. On the one hand, adapting goods and services increases the number of customers that business can reach and, on the other hand, customers receive more accessible products.
„Our intention is for the BAF to be a place for mutual learning about accessibility, so as to better realise the message that accessibility is a human right to unrestricted and barrier-free access,” adds Marcinkowski.
BAF is currently working on a tool called BAFORUM to survey accessibility in organisations. It is a survey, with questions on digital, architectural and ICT accessibility. BAF’s ambition is that it will be a suitable tool for any organisation interested in implementing accessibility and preparing for EAA implementation.
Read more about the new BAF initiative at https://baforum.pl/
The Widzialni Foundation (www.widzialni.eu) has been dealing with counteracting digital and social exclusion for over 20 years. The main goal of the Widzialni is to enable all citizens to have free access to Internet resources, regardless of their age, disability, wealth, hardware and software. From the very beginning of its activity, the Foundation directs the attention of the public, administration and business to the problem of the accessibility of websites, mobile applications and digital documents for people at risk of digital exclusion.
