

The first step is to confirm that a new International Standard the need for a new international standard in the subject area. A new work item proposal (NP) is submitted to the committee for a vote using the New Work Item Proposal Form.
The preparatory stage involves drafting the standard. Once the proposal in stage 1 is approved, a working group of experts prepares the working draft. This draft is then reviewed and revised as necessary.
The draft standard is reviewed by the relevant technical committee. This stage involves multiple rounds of review and revision take place to address all comments and reach a consensus.
The draft standard is circulated to all ISO member bodies for a vote. This stage is crucial for gathering broader feedback and ensuring that the standard meets the needs of all stakeholders.
After the enquiry stage, the draft standard is revised based on the feedback received and then submitted for final approval. This stage ensures that the standard has been thoroughly vetted and agreed upon by all relevant parties.
Once approved, the final draft is published as an official ISO standard. This stage marks the completion of the development process and the standard becomes available for use.
The preliminary stage comprises projects envisaged for the future but not yet ripe for immediate development.
This stage can be used for the elaboration of a new work item proposal and the development of an initial draft. These work items are subject to approval in accordance with the normal procedures before progressing to the preparatory stage.
New work item proposal (NP) (Form NP)
A proposal for new work is generally rooted in a specific need by a stakeholder group in one or several countries. It is brought to the attention of the relevant IEC technical committee/subcommittee (TC/SC) via a National Committee (NC) by using a special form.
Working draft (WD)
During the preparatory stage, a working draft is developed in a TC/SC, generally by a project leader within a project team. The preparatory stage ends when a first committee draft (CD) is ready for circulation to the members of the TC/SC for comments and approval.
Committee draft for comments (CD)
The committee draft (CD) is submitted to all IEC Members: those who participate actively in IEC work, and those who have observer status only (P- and O-members) for comment and approval.
This is the most important commenting stage. At this point, NCs are able to submit all their comments with a view of reaching a consensus on the technical content. Depending on each TC/SC, NCs have between 8 and 16 weeks to submit their comments.
Committee draft for vote (CDV) (FormCDV)
This is the last stage at which technical comments for an international standard can be taken into consideration. The committee draft for vote (CDV) is submitted to all NCs for a 12 week voting period.
Final draft international standard (FDIS) (FormFDIS)
After technical changes requested at the CDV stage have been incorporated, an FDIS is prepared and sent to all NCs for a 6 week voting period.
Following the approval of the FDIS (or CDV – if no technical changes were requested) the IEC International Standard is published by the IEC Secretariat in Geneva, normally within 6 weeks after approval.
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We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to
