WADcher: Public final report

This document contains a summary of the results and scope of the WADcher project addressed to the general public. The project addresses the challenges people with various degrees of disabilities face when accessing mainstream online products and services, thus being excluded from benefiting from Web content and services on an equal basis as people without disabilities. Marginalising people with disabilities on this level is a critical and problematic issue, especially in today’s "Information Society", where access to information should be equally available to all. While these challenges have been identified (also by the EC with the published Web Accessibility Directive (WAD), which entered into force on 22/12/2016), they have not yet been addressed efficiently. In this context and building on ongoing tools, WADcher researched, developed and demonstrated a set of innovative frameworks: an Observatory, a Decision Support Environment (DSE) and a Monitor Service, for large scale hybrid web accessibility assessment services and WAD compliance by implementing the monitoring, reporting and enforcement procedures of the WAD in all European public sector websites, while minimising costs and development-time along with increased scalability, accessibility and usability for all stakeholders, to enable "Web Access by Default".