Objective. This paper addresses the role of consumers/end-users, in our case Persons with Disabilities, in the creation of new standards regarding the accessibility aspects in society and the usability of products for all. The United Nations declaration on the rights of persons with disabilities requires that action has to be taken. The measures to be promoted is to include persons with disabilities, representatives. Until now consumers/end-users are not well represented in standards development. This is partly because European standardization is a new field for consumers/end-users for which they do not have the expertise to jump into. It is therefore needed to involve users with disabilities in the field of standardization.

USEM project. To improve consumer/end-user participation in standardization a training is developed in the USEM project, which is EU funded. The USEM-principles describe the conditions for active user participation. These are:

1. Partnership as a basis;

2. Users are members and/or representatives of user organizations;

3. Financing participation should not be a barrier for participation;

4. Accessibility of all relevant materials and premises is guaranteed;

5. Every partner guarantees respect and expertise;

6. Detailed plan for the project.

Results. In the USEM project 27 trainees from 14 countries are trained to participate in standardization in the ICT-field. A few of them participated in standardization-related activities like joining telephone conferences in an ETSI working group or joining the CEN/CENELEC StandardDays. A networkday with the USEM trainees a year after the actual USEM-training showed that there are still some hurdles for success. These include the cost of participation, not many running projects to participate in, the insufficient accessibility for blind participants of the written material, and the dominance of industrial representatives.

Conclusion.

- Concrete actions/developments are needed for users to get involved and stay involved.

- An active user organization is important for the backing of the representative of users in standardization..