EBU Member's Newsletter

The board of the European Blind Union, its national members, and all her friends and colleagues mourn the sudden death of our secretary general, Maria Kyriacou, who passed away on October 11th 2021.

The Union of the Blind of Serbia and the European Blind Union invited all EBU Members to the 2021 annual conference themed around Employment and Rehabilitation of Blind and Partially Sighted People. The event on this undoubtedly critical topic took place in Belgrade from October 20th to 22nd. It was also an important part of the anniversary celebrations of the Union of the Blind of Serbia, to mark their 75 years of commitment.

All the news from our ongoing campaigns including the Marrakesh Treaty, European Accessibility Act, reform of EU electoral law, and miscellaneous news and events.

Welcome to the 33rd number of the EBU Access Cast – our podcast about assistive technology for blind and partially sighted people. In this episode Hlynur, Mario, Tanja and Pawel cover a wide range of topics regarding accessibility, from Pawel’s birthday present to himself to a new software suite that turns up Mario’s cravings for cheesecake to the maximum… and everything in between.

At this year's White Cane Day on October 15th, 2021, the important topic of "More inclusion in the labour market" was addressed by the Austrian Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted (BSVÖ). Blind and visually impaired people have always faced great challenges in the job market.  In addition, the Corona crisis caused the situation to worsen drastically.

In early 2021, ACAPO alerted the electoral administration to the inaccessibility of the website recensamento.mai.gov.pt, which did not allow visually impaired persons to know, through the same means as any other person without disabilities, where to go to vote. This inaccessibility was caused by the fact that the portal requires, in addition to voter identification data, a human verification code, of the captcha type, which is only contained in an image and is therefore not accessible to screen readers used by visually impaired persons to access the internet.

The German Federation of the Blind and Partially-Sighted (DBSV) and RTB GmbH & Co. KG have founded a new company together. With SMS - Smart Mobility Services GmbH, DBSV wants to revolutionize the support of blind and partially sighted persons in the mobility sector.
When people with visual impairments are traveling from A to B, they face numerous challenges - how do I find out which bus line has just arrived, which track the train is leaving from, and where the elevator is located? While there are a variety of apps to assist those affected, the problem is just that: the variety! How are those affected supposed to know which facilities are available for the blind and partially sighted and which app to open when in order to receive optimal support?

The Estonian Blind Union and the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired have established a 2 year joint project “My Own Life”, which aims to identify and solve the biggest issues with independence and independent living among visually impaired young people in both countries.

On 28^th September, RNIB in partnership with British Blind Sport, launched See Sport Differently, a three-year campaign which aims to tackle lower levels of wellbeing amongst blind and partially sighted people by highlighting the benefits of physical activity, and demonstrating to blind and partially sighted people and the sports industry alike that sight loss doesn’t need to be a barrier to participation.

At the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), we are looking at how accessible video games are for people with different types and levels of sight loss (mild, moderate, severe). The consortium, led by the Royal National Institute of Blind People, is supported by researchers with experience in media and gaming from i2 media research at Goldsmiths, University of London and University of Edinburgh, Moray House School of Education and Sport. We are aiming to understand people’s experiences, needs and preferences in relation to playing games and how enjoyable existing games are to play for people with a vision impairment and how this compares with sighted gamers.