Recommendations

We have found that most eTEN projects that we supported had little capability and experience of usability and accessibility and that there was little or no evidence of these activities in the project work plans. Without the support of the resources provided by Tenuta, few of the projects assisted would have addressed the issues of usability and accessibility in any structured way.

The main challenge for future support activities is to find ways to raise awareness of the issues of accessibility and usability and to help projects build usability and accessibility into their development processes at an earlier stage and in a more effective manner.

This document contains recommendations for how the eTEN or related EU funding programmes should support best practices in usability and accessibility within projects in the future.

Recommendations for those in the EC

  1. Incorporate usability and accessibility into the proposal and negotiation stage
  2. Increase the capability of European developers in understanding accessibility and usability issues
  3. Promote recognition of professional competence in usability and accessibility
  4. Make user testing for both accessibility and usability mandatory in projects that are developing systems for end users

Recommendations Related to Planning a Project

  1. Explain to proposers how user centred design can reduce development time
  2. Include accessibility and usability in project workplan

Recommendations Related to Running a Project

  1. Encourage running projects to obtain accessibility and usability assistance or to use simple methods themselves

Recommendations for Future Support Actions and Information Dissemination

  1. Support actions should engage projects as early as possible through multiple channels.
  2. Persuade projects of the business case for accessibility and usability
  3. The EC should sponsor work to clarify and document the business benefits of usability and accessibility
  4. Explain the importance of starting user centred design early
  5. Be flexible in approaches to enhancing accessibility and usability
  6. Provide a more pro-active follow-up service

The full text of the recommendations can be downloaded [link]