EBU Member's Newsletter

All the latest campaign updates, including the Marrakesh Treaty, the Postal Services Directive and our call for an audio-description conditionality on EU funding to the European cinema industry.

It is my pleasure to join, as of 16/03, the European Blind Union as Executive Director. A few words of introduction about myself: My name is Lars Bosselmann, I am a German national and 40 years old. I am a political scientist by professional background and have been working in Brussels for most of my career...read more

The World Blind Union (WBU), the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI), and the Organización Nacional de (ONCE) announce the postponement of the joint WBU and ICEVI general assemblies

The WBU/ICEVI joint general assemblies will now be held from May 21 through 26, 2021 in Madrid. Thanks to the local host, ONCE, the cost for rooms at the Madrid Marriot Auditorium are unchanged.

Welcome to the 20th episode of the EBU Access Cast. We have come to the 20th episode so far, and we would like to thank you for listening to us. We are preparing some nice goodies for you for the future episodes, but new surprise will be coming to you soon. In the meantime, let's check what's going on in these dark times which hover around the world.

As the Corona pandemic is taking over the Europe and rest of the world, lots of jobs are transferred to teleworking. We made a research to see how it affects the tech giants and assistive tech industry in general and how the whole situation affects the state of accessibility in different environments.

There’s been lots of advice recently reminding people to wash their hands properly.  The internet is full of videos showing you how to do it.  We’ve struggled to find one that is audio described, so we’ve put together these guidelines based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) information and a video made by NZ’s Dr Michelle Dickinson AKA Nanogirl that shows you how to do it.  Please note that we are not medical professionals so this information should be used in conjunction with the official advice available from the World Health Organisation and relevant country authorities.

100 years ago, two blind women, Élisa Michiels and Lambertine Bonjean, started an ambitious project: supporting blind people in Belgium to live a normal life, not characterised or limited by their blindness. Through this vision, Brailleliga / Ligue Braille was born. Since that day, the association has continued to expand its activities. Today more than 15,500 blind and visually impaired members of the Brailleliga/Ligue Braille live their daily lives in complete autonomy.

On January 31, the electoral act took place for the 2020-2025 mandate, for the organisations members of the National Mechanism for monitoring the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Me-CRPD) and its Advisory Council.

ACAPO, which was already an appointed member of this mechanism, submitted its candidacy for this election and was elected to these two bodies.

Kathy Ann Murtha has been doing training for people with vision impairments for many years. Jonathan has also been involved with many issues related to vision impairment over a long number of years.

Kathy Ann is offering free daily Windows 10 lessons, from 27 March through 18 April 2020 via Zoom at 19:30 GMT. The site lists the lesson topics for each day. Lessons are an hour long with a half-hour for instruction and a half-hour for discussion

A new EU level synthesis report Social Enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe has just been published. It collates and interprets the key findings from 35 country reports covering EU Member States and other countries participating in the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation.

Karin Flößer, representative for international affairs of the DBSV working group for guide dog owners, gave an interview on the history of guide dogs to the BBC.

Macmillan Learning of the United States and Fondazione LIA of Italy are the winners of the 2020 ABC International Excellence Awards for Accessible Publishing. Macmillan Learning was recognized in the publisher category and Fondazione LIA was recognized in the initiative category for their achievements in improving the accessibility of e-books and other digital publications for people who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print-disabled.

A unique 10-day summer camp for blind and partially sighted youth from 16 to 21 years old.

ICCs are organised by the ICC international association, a no-profit organisation with national coordinators in a large number of countries. Every year, ICC is held in a different country and this time it will take place in Aveiro, Portugal, from July 21 to July 30.