# EU creates agency to fund open accessibility infrastructure

> A fictional launch release for EDAI, an EU agency that funds open-source assistive technology, with the 40/40/20 clause every approved supplier must accept.

Part of [Red DOG](https://blind-ant.com/pieces/red-dog/index.md), a Piece.

A Blind Ant design fiction. EDAI does not exist (yet). Nothing here is a real announcement, and no real person or institution is quoted.

Brussels, 16 March 2027. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The European Digital Accessibility Infrastructure agency (EDAI) opened today with a mandate to fund, procure and maintain open-source assistive technology as shared European infrastructure.

EDAI has been set up to answer a question that the European Accessibility Act left open: when an organisation must provide accessible services, what does it run on, and who is accountable when that software is owned by a company outside Europe?

## What EDAI will do

- Fund upstream open-source accessibility projects directly, with grants that carry no control over their roadmaps.
- Run a framework tender so that public bodies and regulated businesses can buy deployment, training and support for open assistive technology from approved suppliers.
- Publish deployment guidance, security reviews and procurement templates, free to use.

## The 40/40/20 clause

Every supplier approved under the framework must accept one standard term, known in the tender documents as the 40/40/20 clause. Net surplus from any contract that depends on a funded open-source project is divided as follows:

- 40% to the upstream project, paid into a ring-fenced fund that the project alone controls, with no conditions on how it is spent.
- 40% retained by the supplier, to cover growth, risk and reinvestment.
- 20% to an Add-On Commons, a pool paid to the independent developers who build and maintain extensions, administered by a panel of blind and partially sighted developers.

"Net surplus" means revenue less direct delivery costs, independently audited and published every year. Suppliers may not hold a seat on, or influence, the upstream project's roadmap as a condition of any payment, and no single supplier's payments may exceed a set proportion of an upstream project's annual funding.

## First project in scope

EDAI's first funded project is [NVDA](https://www.nvaccess.org/), the free, open-source screen reader maintained by NV Access.

"We are not buying a product. We are making sure that a piece of infrastructure millions of people already depend on has a stable footing, and that the companies who earn money from it pay their way," said Marit Solheim-Vance, EDAI's founding director. (Marit Solheim-Vance is a fictional person.)

## Timetable

The framework tender opens in May 2027. Contracts are expected to be awarded within fourteen months of that date, subject to the usual procedure.

## Notes

EDAI is a fictional agency. It has no connection to any EU institution.

NV Access and NVDA are named as a plausible first case. NV Access has not been consulted and has not endorsed this piece.

This work is released under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. Take it, change it, build it.


## More about this

- This is one Object of [Red DOG](https://blind-ant.com/pieces/red-dog/index.md), a Piece at Blind Ant.
- [Red DOG launches as first approved supplier under EDAI's open accessibility framework](https://blind-ant.com/pieces/red-dog/red-dog-launch-release/index.md): A fictional launch release for Red DOG, the first company to sell support for NVDA under EDAI's 40/40/20 clause, with a realistic order of work for making it real.

## About the author

Blind Ant is written and run by Charlotte Joanne. [About Blind Ant](https://blind-ant.com/about/index.md) says more.