Funka influences the authoring tool market

The Cluster project builds upon the pilot project We4Authors, where we investigated which authoring tools are the most commonly used in public sector in Europe and whether they provide accessibility by default. We4authors got a lot of attention and generated no less than three succeeding projects, one of them is Cluster. Funka was also awarded another succeeding project which we will present later on.

The idea of Cluster is to encourage the market to integrate accessibility by default in authoring tools, both generating automatic accessibility and supporting authors to publish in an accessible way. Working together with key players in the market, covering both licensed and open source products, and by publishing the results free of charge, we hope to influence large parts of the market to develop products that are more accessible.

Most web authors don’t have professional knowledge in accessibility. To make a change the tools must give better support, says Susanna Laurin, Chief Research and Innovation Officer at Funka. It will be very exciting to see to what extent we can push the producers in the right direction.

In the project we will develop functionality for accessibility by default together with a cluster of authoring tool producers. Apart from our existing partners, we will also invite more producers to participate in the project.

Getting the possibility to test new functions, to get accessibility support and being paid at the same time should attract a lot of producers, says Johan Kling, Quality Manager at Funka. We expect a lot of applicants.

The functions, that build upon user needs as well as regulations and recommendations from the pilot project, will be implemented in different kinds of authoring tools and tested with users; web authors as well as person with disabilities. After the project, the results will be published openly in order for authoring tool producers not taking part in the project to also access the new ideas.

Funding: European parliament
Period: March 2020 - July 2021
Consortium: Funka (project manager), SiteVision and Kitkoncept
Budget: 260 000 EURO

Project website of the We4Authors Cluster, opens in new window

Project website of the pilot project We4Authors, opens in a new window

The project FEAT (Features for accessibility through templates)