PARVIS (Promoting Awareness on the Rights of Visually Disabled People in an Inclusive Society) raises awareness of blind and partially-sighted persons rights, while building visual impairment organisations’ capacities to advocate for them, through the creation and provision of accessible audiovisual communication material, harmonised at the European level.
Project news:
Results of the survey about Audio Description in EBU Countries conducted in 2021 as part of the PARVIS project (December 2022, pdf document)
For further information on access to arts and culture, see the dedicated section of the website.
The project in the news (15/12/2022)
- An article on the Superando site (in Italian) about the 'day in the life' video.
- An article on the Social Europe site by EBU's Jakob Rosen on accessible information, which includes the Parvis project.
On 18/19 October 2022 EBU held the concluding event of the PARVIS project in the form of a webinar on non-discrimination. This resulted in the EBU Declaration on Accessibility of information: key areas of discrimination for visually impaired people. (pdf file)
(09 June 2021) Project Coordinator Mariem Sene was interviewed on RNIB Connect Radio by Allan Russell, about the videos and the project in general!
Project Objective & Deliverables:
Supported by the European Commission, PARVIS is a joint project with EBU member organisations to raise awareness of blind and partially sighted citizens’ (BPS) rights within Europe. The project involves altogether 9 PARVIS countries: Slovakia, Germany, Montenegro, France, Lithuania, Portugal, and Spain, in addition to Netherlands and Sweden, which are partners within the PARVIS consortium.
The PARVIS activities center upon 10 rights derived from the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD): right to accessible health care, accessible information, personal mobility, work and employment, participation in cultural life, habilitation and rehabilitation, participation in public and political life, accessibility and inclusive education, as well as rights of children with disabilities.
The project activities that span over a period of two years until the end of 2022 consist of:
- Launching two tailor-made Twitter campaigns to promote for such rights in 9 PARVIS countries;
- Developing audio and visual contents to campaign more effectively towards the enforcement of BPS persons’ rights, including podcasts, and awareness-raising videos available in at least 10 languages (English, Slovak, German, Montenegrin, French, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and Swedish);
- Building the capacity of visually impaired (VI) citizens and national visual impairment organisation to defend their rights through info-sessions and e-workshops;
- Developing generic European Guidelines on audio-description, available in several languages, with clear and harmonised technical specifications;
- Organising a coordinated awareness-raising event in 9 countries on May 9, 2022 on the occasion of Europe Day to promote political participation of BPS citizens across Europe with the aim to improve accessible voting and representation of BPS people in politics. A video of the French event (in French) is available.
- Hosting an online seminar on non-discrimination.
The Podcast
26 October, 2022 "Right to inclusive education". Read the podcast episode transcript.
30 September 2022, "Right to personal mobility". Read the podcast episode transcript.
31 August 2022, "Right to habilitation and rehabilitation services and programmes ". Read the podcast episode transcript.
30 May 2022, "Right to political participation": Read the podcast episode transcript.
24 March 2022, "Right to digital inclusion": Read the podcast episode transcript.
31 January 2022, "Right to equal access to culture". Read the podcast episode transcript.
30 November 2021, "Rights on the labour market". Read the podcast episode transcript.
The awareness raising videos
A day in life of a visually impaired person
Introduction: This video containing audiodescription provides real life scenes that highlight obstacles blind and partially sighted people face in their daily lives and offers solutions on how to overcome them. The video focuses UNCRPD articles 9 (accessibility of the built environment), 19 (living independently), 20 (personal mobility), 21 (accessible information), 24 (inclusive education), 27 (work and employment), 29 (right to join public and political life) and 30 (participation in cultural life and sports).
This video is also available in Dutch, Estonian, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Montenegrin, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish Swedish and Czech.
1. The right to accessible health care
EBU video on the right to accessible healthcare, May 2021. Read the scene-by-scene description, video 1.
The translated versions in Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Montenegrin, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish are also available.
2. The right to accessible information
EBU video on the right to accessible information, July 2021. Read the scene-by-scene description, video 2.
The translated versions in Dutch, Estonian, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Montenegrin, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.
3. The right to personal mobility
EBU video on the right to personal mobility, September 2021. Read the scene-by-scene description, video 3.
The translated versions in Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Montenegrin, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, and Spanish.
4. The right to Work
EBU video on the Equal Right to Work, November 2021. Read the scene-by-scene description, video 4.
The translated versions in Dutch, Estonian, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Montenegrin, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.
5. The right to culture and sport
EBU video on the right to culture and sport, January 2022. Read the scene-by-scene description, video 5.
The translated versions in Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Montenegrin, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.
6. The right to maximum independence
EBU video on the right to maximum independence, February 2022. Read the scene-by-scene description, video 6.
The translated versions in Dutch, French, German, Lithuanian, Italian, Montenegrin, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.
7. The right to political participation
EBU video on the right to political participation, April 2022. Read the scene-by-scene description, video 7.
The translated versions in Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Montenegrin, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.
8. The right to an accessible world for all
EBU video on the right to an accessible world for all, June 2022. Read the scene-by-scene description, video 8.
The translated versions in Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Montenegrin, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.
9. Rights of visually impaired children
EBU video on the rights of visually impaired children, August 2022. Read the scene-by-scene description, video 9.
The translated versions in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Montenegrin, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.
10. The right to inclusive education
EBU video on the right to inclusive education, November 2022. Read the scene-by-scene description, video 10.
The translated versions in German, Dutch, French, Lithuanian, Montenegrin, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.