Technical Committee (TC) Human Factors (HF)
We deal with issues relating to the ease of use and accessibility for all users. Our work is aimed at empowering industry to deliver successful new ICT products and services.
Through our work we help industry to anticipate future problems as the marketplace becomes ever more diverse and fast-moving. One major goal is to identify emerging user interaction technologies, to look for factors that could cause problems for certain users in some situations, and to identify solutions. These considerations greatly reduce the instances of the costly and reputation-damaging cycle of partial launch failure followed by expensive post-hoc fixes.
We are active in ensuring that European accessibility requirements related to public procurement of ICT products and services are approached in a way that is effective and embraced by industry. EN 301 549 V3 the harmonized European Standard for ICT Accessibility, jointly published with CEN and CENELEC, was a major step in this direction and is applicable globally. It is used by public authorities and other public-sector bodies during procurement, to ensure that websites, software and digital devices are more accessible – to be used by persons with a wide range of abilities. This standard has been adopted in many countries beyond Europe and is currently under revision to support the implementation of the European Directive (EU)2019/882 on the accessibility requirements for products and services (the European Accessibility Act).
We published comprehensive guidelines on user-centred terminology for existing and upcoming ICT devices, services and applications in 19 languages, and are in the process of extending it to 27 languages to cover all official languages in EU member states.
Our latest work includes the publication of a Technical Report TR 103 852 ‘An Examination of Video Game Usability and Accessibility’. Describing issues arising from inconsistency of usability and accessibility in video game controls, the report identifies the role of standards-based solutions in ensuring consistent design practice.
We are conducting a pre-standardisation study on the topic of Age Verification, in support of the implementation of the Digital Service Act and the policy aim for a better internet for kids, to protect minors from exposure to inadequate content through the usage of validated age information by service and content providers.
Latest Publications
