ARCEP signs a charter of voluntary commitments from the telecom sector to facilitate access to electronic communications services for people with disabilities.

Paris, 9 June 2011

Today ARCEP signed the charter of voluntary commitments from the telecom sector to facilitate access to electronic communications services for people with disabilities

In 2005, under the auspices of the French Association of mobile operators (AFOM), the country's three mobile operators - Orange, Bouygues Telecom and SFR - signed a charter of commitment with the country's electronic communications regulatory authority and the Inter-ministerial delegation to the disabled (Délégation interministérielle aux personnes handicapées), to facilitate mobile telephony accessibility for people with disabilities.

In 2011, this charter was expanded to include all electronic communications services, as part of the work being carried out under the aegis of the Inter-ministerial committee on disabilities, CIH (Comité interministériel du handicap), in collaboration with the French Telecoms Federation, FFT (Fédération française des Telecoms), the Ministry responsible for social welfare and social cohesion (Ministère de solidarités et de la cohésion sociale), associations representing people with disabilities and ARCEP.

ON 9 June 2011, CIH, the Ministry responsible for social welfare and social cohesion, ARCEP and the FFT signed this charter, making the carriers' commitments official. This was carried out in the presence of associations representing people with disabilities.

ARCEP welcomes this progress which marks a first step towards improving the accessibility of electronic communications services for the disabled.

The Authority will continue to devote its efforts to this process, and will be involved in the complementary work being performed by carriers, CIH, handset manufacturers and software providers - one of the main objectives being to streamline accessibility criteria and steadily improve the indicators used to track compliance with the commitments. ARCEP will pay particular attention to this last matter.