EBU and AccessibleEU have established professional contact and are excited to keep working together
The European Accessibility Resource Centre (AccessibleEU) is one of the flagship initiatives proposed by the European Commission Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030. The centre supports the implementation of the European Union legislation on accessibility, working on areas such as built environment, transport, information and communication technologies.
Through training and events, AccessibleEU is working on building the capacity on accessibility in EU countries and connecting stakeholders responsible for implementing accessibility rules in the EU. The centre has held a total of 183 events and three online courses since its inception in 2023, training professionals on accessibility and facilitating working relationships between institutions, accessibility experts and professionals from different fields.
In the same vein, AccessibleEU conducts studies and creates guidelines and support materials for implementing accessibility in places, products and services, which are available on its website. Furthermore, the centre is monitoring accessibility in all 27 Member States. The monitoring framework is composed of structural indicators, process indicators, and outcome indicators, and the result of this research can be consulted on the website.
With an ever-growing online library on accessibility, which includes 260 references and over 300 good practices from all Member States, news about accessibility from all over Europe, and a community of practice of over 3,450 professionals, AccessibleEU has become a common European one-stop-shop on accessibility.
The European Blind Union and AccessibleEU have been networking during these two years, establishing professional relationships and promoting each other’s activity, such as EBU’s recommendations on Enhancing the accessibility of payment terminals, which AccessibleEU reported on its website. Most notably, the two institutions are designing a joint workshop for 2025. Both EBU and AccessibleEU are excited to hold this event and to keep working together in the future.