ENAT Proposes CEN Workshop Agreement on Accessible Transport and Tourism Services

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ENAT is putting forward plans to develop a 'Consensus Document' of specifications for accessible transport and tourism services for disabled people. The proposal aims to bring together industry, public authorities, disability NGOs and consumer organisations under the auspices of a CEN Workshop Agreement to identify good practices and agree on a set of basic guidelines. A draft document describing the planned 14-month workshop and how to participate is now available for downloading. Interested organisations are invited to provide their comments on this draft by 30th November 2008.

ENAT is putting forward plans to develop a 'Consensus Document' of specifications for accessible transport and tourism services for disabled people.

The proposal aims to bring together industry, public authorities, disability NGOs and consumer organisations under the auspices of a CEN Workshop Agreement to identify good practices and agree on a set of basic guidelines.

ENAT's initiative to establish a CEN Workshop Agreement follows work done during 2007-2008 by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and the French Standards Institute (AFNOR), which investigated the need for new European Standards in the area of accessible transport and tourism services, at the request of the European Commission. See the previous ENAT Event item, CEN/AFNOR Workshop, 13 February 2008 for further details.

The consensus document proposed by ENAT would be a non-binding guideline which enterprises may choose to use to develop or improve their services for disabled visitors and others who require good accessibility. ENAT believes that the vast majority of transport and tourism enterprises would find such a guideline very useful, given that accessible services are increasingly in demand from visitors. Having a commonly agreed set of basic service recommendations would enable managers to identify quickly and clearly where and how to improve their services, benefitting both the enterprises and their customers.

The CEN Workshop Agreement process has been chosen as it allows businesses, NGOs, professional bodies, public authorities and other entities to participate. Interested organisations from outside Europe may also contribute to the work, much of which takes place by electronic communications. 

A draft document describing the planned 14-month workshop, (starting Spring 2009) and how to participate is now available for downloading. Interested organisations are invited to provide their comments on this draft document to ENAT by 30th November 2008.

Download the Draft CWA Business Plan in MS WORD format from the right-hand panel.