Overview
Europe: Europe, historically the most vigorous applier of ergonomics standards to IT purchases, has many uncoordinated sets of country-specific regulations awaiting consolidation through the European Union. If historical patterns prevail, IBM can expect the EU to base regulations on a mixture of these countries' guidelines and ISO standards.
Japan: Japanese government agencies, such as MITI, are circulating recommendations on how IT should be deployed to provide accessibility to everyone. After review and agreement, these recommendations will become regulations for doing business with the ministries.
Other nations: Other nations are following suit. The Nordic countries have published their own set of accessibility guidelines; and Portugal and Thailand have recently introduced legislation that directly requires Web accessibility. Countries, such as Australia and Canada, now have legislation that makes it a civil right for individuals with disabilities to be able to access certain kinds of information.