Accessibility
We continue to monitor Creative Europe/MEDIA calls as they come, and namely the most recent 5 calls, published on 20 October. We observed no positive development compared to our paper of early July, in which we deplored that the programme appeared to be only giving lip-service to promoting the inclusion of persons with disabilities through funding to the film industry. We are far from any concrete incitement to provide audio description and audio subtitling.
Equality
On 9 November, we participated in the meeting of the EU Disability Platform’s subgroup on the Disability Employment Package. The Commission invites disabled people’s organisations to indicate if and how they are willing to engage with public employment services, against the background of the Toolkit on strengthening PES to improve the labour market outcomes of persons with disabilities. We had circulated this Toolkit to our members in the EU, for their information.
On 16 November, in the context of the European Week on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities, we communicated on social media about our involvement in the Disability Employment Package. We will need to think about how we can best accompany the Package in 2023 and onwards. Possibly through recommendations to employers on reasonable accommodation for visually impaired workers?
Mobility
A “call for evidence” (new name for what was previously called “roadmap”) on the future EU-wide Disability Card was published on 24 November. We will respond to it. A proper public consultation is expected in early 2023. A meeting of the dedicated subgroup of the EU Disability Platform is expected in the meantime, by the end of this year.
On 30 November, we followed (online) the Annual Workshop on the rights of persons with disabilities, organised by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs for the Committee on Petitions. This year’s workshop was on “Disability Assessment, Mutual Recognition and the EU Disability Card”. More news about this in the next edition of the Newsletter.
On 4 November, together with our Czech member organisation SONS, we attended the NAPCORE Mobility Data Days 2022, more precisely the session on Accessibility of Mobility Data. We made the case the needs of visually impaired people and reminded the participants – including representatives of Member States, of the obligations under Web Accessibility Directive and the European Accessibility Act.
Miscellaneous
On 7 November, we participated in a joint AGE-Platform and EDF meeting “Better protection for EU passengers and their rights”. The aim was to gather input for the European Commission’s public consultation on passenger rights (air, waterborne, rail and bus) through which the Commission seeks to evaluate the EU legislation. Our input particularly focused on the gaps in legislation for intermodal transport. EBU will also directly respond to the consultation (deadline 7 December).
On 24-25 November, EBU attended the European Day of Persons with Disabilities 2022 conference, in Brussels. The focus this year was on the rights of children and young people with disabilities, as well as on violence, in all its forms, against persons with disabilities. The conference discussed how global instruments such as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) can help to achieve progress for all people with disabilities across the globe. One of the major announcements made during the conference by the European Commission was about the European disability card, an instrument for which the EC hopes to develop a solid proposal in the year to come. EBU will make inputs in the development of that card, as it has the potential to become a really useful tool in the daily life of people with disabilities in the EU.
As each year, we also communicated around the Access City Award 2023, to contribute to its visibility. This year’s edition rewarded good practices of the following cities, by order of ranking: Skellefteå (Sweden), Córdoba (Spain), and Ljubljana (Slovenia). The following cities also received mentions: Hamburg (Germany) on built environment, Grenoble (France) on transport, and Mérida (Spain) on information and communication technology. For further information, see here.