Teema: RE: Questions about accessibility directive implementation, Estonia
From: Krista Erg-Scacchetti - MKM
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2024 10:44 AM
To:
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[email protected]>
Cc: Harri Puskar <
[email protected] <mailto:
[email protected]> >;
[email protected] <mailto:
[email protected]> ; Valdlo, Taisi <
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[email protected]> >
Subject: Questions about accessibility directive implementation, Estonia
Hello!
Estonia has finished the transposition of the directive on the accessibility requirements for products and services. We are working on practical implementation and surveillance protocols and have ran into some questions. Please help us to better understand these two topics:
Firstly, about the directive’s Section V: Specific accessibility requirements related to the answering of emergency communications to the single European emergency number ‘112’ by the most appropriate PSAP… Emergency communications to the single European emergency number ‘112’ shall be appropriately answered, in the manner best suited to the national organization of emergency systems, by the most appropriate PSAP using the same communication means as received, namely by using synchronized voice and text (including real time text), or, where video is provided, voice, text (including real time text) and video synchronized as total conversation.
Estonia is preparing to implement these new functions to the emergency number, but has the European Commission communicated with the providers of various communication applications (i.e. Skype, Messenger, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Signal) on the subject of creating readiness for sending emergency calls to the respective country's Emergency Response Centre?
Secondly, about the directive’s section IV (e-ii) Consumer banking services: ensuring that the information is understandable, without exceeding a level of complexity superior to level B2 (upper intermediate) of the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
An Estonian Banking Association and an Estonian market surveillance authority had a meeting on March 13, and the association had a question: How do we implement level B2 (upper intermediate) of the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, and are there any standards or guidelines that are relevant to complying with the requirement? For the association, it is unclear how to understand what kind of information about a consumer banking service complies with certain levels of the Framework and how the market surveillance authority is going to monitor compliance with level B2. The association is expecting the authority to provide a precise checklist that service providers can use to check compliance with the B2 requirement.
A similar question was asked of the authority by a translation agency on April 29. As their clients (consumer banking service providers) are asking for guidance from us regarding the level B2 requirement, they would like to know: are there precise guidelines on how to assess compliance of text to level B2? The framework's levels are meant to evaluate people's language proficiency, but now they should be applied to text. Language editors have a basic understanding of a text at the B2 level, but they should know: shall language editors rely solely on their understanding or if there are some guidelines they may follow?
Please help us to understand the bigger picture and plan our next actions in the implementation process.
This e-mail is CC-d to Harri Puskar from Estonian market surveillance authority, Kadi Luht-Kallas from the Ministry of the Interior and Taisi Valdlo from AS CGI Eesti (analyst from the 112 development project).
Best regards,
Krista Erg-Scacchetti
Accessibility advisor
Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture, Department of Spatial Planning
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Equality Policy Department
phone (+372) 5662 8067
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www.agri.ee <http://www.agri.ee/> | www.mkm.ee <http://www.mkm.ee/>
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