Estonia

[EE] Estonia: Implementation of new rules on accessibility of products and services

IRIS 2022-9:1/2

Mari Anne Valberg

TGS Baltic

The recently enacted Products and Services Accessibility Act (Toodete ja teenuste ligipääsetavuse seadus — LPS) transposes the EU Directive on that subject. The law applies to traders who manufacture, import or distribute products, and to service providers that offer services falling within the scope of the law. These products and services include, for example, e-readers, payment terminals, ticket machines, check-in machines, cash or payment machines, self-service terminals, computer hardware and operating systems, terminal equipment with interactive computing capabilities, e-commerce services, electronic communications services, e-books and the specialised software necessary for their use, financial services, elements of air, bus, rail and water passenger transport services, such as a websites or electronic ticketing services, and services providing access to an audiovisual media service.

Purpose of the new legislation

The LPS lays down the requirements necessary to enable people such as the visually impaired, the hearing impaired, wheelchair users, people with motor disabilities or any other person with reduced functional capacity, to manage independently. For example, the law requires that an ATM must be accessible to a person in a wheelchair as well as to a child, a short adult or an elderly person, amongst others.

In addition, the instructions for the use of a product, the information on the packaging and the relevant instructions on a website or other means of access must be accessible using more than one of the senses. Likewise, where a product allows for the communication, use or presentation of information, this must be feasible through the use of more than one sense. When using sound or visual aids in a product, the consumer must have the possibility to improve the clarity of the visual aid and to adjust the volume and speed of the sound. Extensive requirements are set for self-service terminals - for example, they must incorporate speech synthesis technology and, in the case of a limited response time, provide a warning to the user through the use of more than one sense. The e-reader must have a function for audio presentation of the text, and each consumer must be able to navigate the content and layout of an e-book. The complexity of the information provided in the provision of a financial service shall not exceed level B2 (upper intermediate) of the Council of Europe's European Framework of Reference for Languages.

How to comply with new accessibility requirements

According to the LPS, a manufacturer must draw up the technical documentation in such a way as to enable the conformity of the product with the applicable accessibility requirements to be assessed and to cover, as far as relevant for such assessment, the design, manufacture and use of the product.

Where the conformity of a product or service has been assessed in compliance with harmonised standards or parts thereof covering the accessibility requirements, the product or service that complies with such standards or parts thereof shall be presumed to conform with the accessibilty requirements covered by the standard or part thereof. Where the conformity of a product or service has been assessed in compliance with the technical specifications or parts thereof covering the accessibility requirements, the product or service that complies with such technical specifications or parts thereof shall be presumed to comply with the accessibility requirements of that technical specification or part thereof.