Why do we need a collaborative platform for information on standards and standardization activities?

Developments in legislation and technology make it imperative for assistive technology (AT) related experts, institutions, organizations, enterprises, etc. to have appropriate knowledge about pertinent standards for the sector and ongoing standardization activities. Nevertheless the right information is difficult to obtain. AT/Accessibility relevant standardization today occurs in a broad range of technical committees, some focused specifically on AT/Accessibility related standards, while in many other standardization activities AT/Accessibility is just an issue among others, which make them more difficult to identify.

Participation in activities to influence standardization is rewarding but also challenging without the right colleborative structure.

For this reason the board of AAATE welcomes and endorses the initiative of some of the members to set up/revitalise a Special Interest Group (SIG) for “Standardization”.

This calls for sharing efforts to identify standards and evaluate them, to observe and influence standardization activities and to inform other members in a systematic way.

What next?

Interested members are invited to meet for a preparatory workshop in Austria end of March/beginning of April 2019 in order to:

• to discuss the issues involved in organizing a collaborative platform re standards
• to discuss the ToR of the new SIG
• to plan a AAATE/SIG “Standardization” Workshop in the framework of the forthcoming AAATE 2019 Conference in Bologna

Call for Interest

In order to facilitate the preparations of the pre-workshop, we would like to ask you for your expression of interest in joining the above-mentioned SIG “Standardization”.

Please send your expression of interest to office@aaate.net.