The Parliament wants to ensure that also the 80 million Europeans with disabilities can access public sector websites and apps.

﻿Making websites and apps accessible for all

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/11624619/N005-161025-001-EN.srt

Maurizio used to work  as a freelance journalist

but now he is the Press Officer for Italy  at the European Parliament.

This week he is in Strasbourg  for the plenary session.

Maurizio, who has been blind since birth,

takes a special interest  in one of the items on the MEPs' agenda.

If I hadn't had a computer  equipped with assistive technology,

I wouldn't be able to be here today  doing the job I'm doing,

I wouldn't have been able  to be a journalist.

Even so, many internet sites are still not  accessible for disabled people or the elderly.

If you have to pay a bill,  maybe you want to select the period

where you can  give your actual consumption,

and you cannot make it because  you cannot click on the submit button.

The EP wants to make it mandatory  for all public sector organisations

to run websites  that are accessible to everyone.

According to the MEP Dita Charanzová,  80 million disabled people would benefit.

We will get rid of the bizarre situation

where people are asked  to pay their taxes online

but the website is not accessible  to all citizens.

It will also help employees  at their workplace,

because all the information on the intranet  will have to be accessible to them.

And mothers who want to  follow the websites of schools.

For Maurizio and other disabled persons  this is only a first step

that should be followed by  web accessibility of the private sector:

Making websites and apps accessible for all