CEN/CENELEC Guide 6

CEN/CENELEC Guide 6: Guidelines for standards developers to address the needs of older persons and persons with disabilities is a document for participants in CEN Technical Committees and CEN Workshops that contains guidance for the creation of standards to ensure greater accessibility of products and services. The document is a "Guide", in other words, not a European Standard (EN). The guide was adopted by both the CEN Technical Board and the CENELEC Technical Board, and published in January 2002. The European Commission is also funding projects to promote the use of the Guide.

Background

CEN/CENELEC Guide 6 resulted from Mandate M/283, which the European Commission and the European Fee Trade Association (EFTA) gave to the three official European standardisation bodies CEN, CENELEC and ETSI. The text of the Mandate pointed out that special needs were addressed in standards related to assistive technologies, but that

there is no formal structure or procedure ensuring that the needs of all consumers of all ages, with or without disabilities or special abilities, are catered for in the entire standardisation process. Individual standardisation committees do not spontaneously take into account safety and usability for people with disabilities and for elderly people, except if they draft specific standards for assistive products. If general standards for consumer products do not meet the requirements of these consumers with special needs, this means that many products and services cannot be used by a large part of the European population.

The Guide is part of a wider framework that standardisation organisations can use to support the need for more accessible products and services. The ISO/IEC Policy Statement 2000 "Addressing the Needs of Older Persons and People with Disabilities in Standardization Work" provided principles and considerations for ensuring that the needs of older persons and persons with disabilities are addressed in the standardisation process.

ISO/IEC Guide 71:2001: Guidelines for standardization to address the needs of older persons and people with disabilities has the same goal as CEN/CENELEC Guide 6.

Content

CEN/CENELEC Guide 6 is a document for participants in CEN technical bodies: Technical Committees or TCs, Working Groups or WGs, Task Forces, Workshops etcetera. These technical bodies are responsible for addressing the needs of persons with disabilities and older people in the standards, specifications, reports or other documents that they produce.

CEN/CENELEC Guide 6 has three goals:

1. to inform how human abilities (and disabilities) affect the usability of products, services and the built environment,
2. to describe how requirements in standards relate to accessibility and usability of products and services,
3. to raise awareness about the benefits of accessibile design.

The Guide consists of a few introductory sections followed by 10 other chapters which are called "clauses". The most important chapters are described in the list below.

1. Clause 6 briefly describes a process that allows technical committees to consider the needs of older persons and persons with disabilities.
2. Clause 7 and 8 provide tables that relate several types of clauses in a standard (e.g. on packaging, the user interface and the built environment) to factors that need to be considered when addressing disabilities.
3. Clause 9 provides descriptions of body functions or disabilities and their implications when using products and services.
4. The last chapter is a bibliography that provides a list of resources for more specific guidance.

Implementation and Uptake

In December 2001, CEN and CENELEC pubished CEN/CENELEC Guide 2: "CEN/CENELEC Guide 2: Consumer interests and the preparation of standards", which is a republication of CEN/CENELEC Memorandum 2 from 1977. This guide recommends member bodies of CEN and CENELEC to consult with consumer organisations when developing standards that are relevant to consumer interests. CEN/CENELEC Guide 2 is older than Guide 6 and therefore does not reference it.

At the end of 2004, CEN adopted a "Mechanism on the use of the CEN/CENELEC Guide 6" According to ANEC it took two years to develop this mechanism and its adoption followed after "intense lobbying by ANEC". The implementation mechanism has several implications:

1. CEN technical bodies (such as Technical Committees and Working Groups) are responsible for addressing the needs of older persons and of persons with disabilities in their standards. They can do this by creating an optional working document that is not part of the standard. (Not every standard is affected by the mechanism.)
2. When a standard is reviewed, the technical body can address the needs of older persons and persons with disabilities if necessary. When creating a new standard, these needs can be addressed during the standardisation work.
3. When appropriate, a technical body can add a statement in the foreword of a standard that states where the needs of older persons and persons with disabilities have been addressed.
4. The primary reference document that technical bodies should use when addressing the needs of older persons and persons with disabilities in their work is CEN/CENELEC Guide 6.

CEN/CENELEC Guide 11: "Product information relevant to consumers - Guidelines for standard developers" was published in 2006 and refers to CEN/CENELEC Guide 6 for guidance on informational needs of people with disabilities and older people.

In 2007-2008, NEN - the Dutch standardisation organisation - and Standard Norge carried out a feasibility study within the European Mandate M/371. One of the findings was that the implementation of Guide 6 faced some difficulties. For this reason, NEN and CEN started an action to promote the use of Guide 6, and in December 2007 NEN proposed the installation of an CEN/CENELEC/BT/WG Accessibility for All. ANEC also supported the creation of such a working group. This led to the creation of the CEN/CENELEC/BT/WG CEN/CENELEC Guide 6 Implementation Mechanism. The working group held a preliminary meeting on 29 October 2008 and its first official meeting on 8 April 2009.

In August 2008, the European Commission published a call for tenders on the subject of "Training of Stakeholders on consultations on standardisation" The main goal of this call is promoting the use of Guide 6:

A guide for standardisers to address the needs of older persons and persons with disabilities (CEN/CENELEC Guide 6), has been developed and is available since 2003 but its use is not widespread. The use of Guide 6 in a more systematic way can certainly help to address the needs of people with disabilities and older persons from a "design for all" perspective.

The use of the guide should be promoted by training two types of stakeholders in the standardisation process:

1. the traditional stakeholders in the standardisation process need training on accessibility matters and the use of Guide 6;
2. representatives of older persons and persons with disabilities need training on the standardisation process (and CEN Guide 6).

The European project USEM (User Empowerment in Standardisation) also uses CEN Guide 6 in its training on standardisation for representatives of older persons and persons with disabilities .

CEN/CENELEC Guide 6 is also available in other languages, for example:

• German: DIN-Fachbericht 131: Leitlinien für Normungsgremien zur Berücksichtigung der Bedürfnisse von älteren Menschen und von Menschen mit Behinderungen; Deutsche und englische Fassung des CEN/CENELEC-Leitfadens 6,
• Swedish: Riktlinjer för att i standardiseringsarbetet tillgodose behoven hos äldre och personer med funktionsnedsättningar,
• Japanese: JIS 8071:2003.

See also

• Accessibility
• Universal Design
• Design for All (inclusion)
• Assistive technology
• Computer accessibility