EBU Member's Newsletter

Information on EBU's work concerning the ongoing war in Ukraine.

All the news from our ongoing campaigns including Equality, Accessibility, Social Security and Welfare, and much more.

As part of EBU’s traditional way to introduce new staff members, we would like to introduce you to Nacho Lopez, our new External Communications Officer who will help us to increase our outreach to our objective public. Many of you will be in touch with him to discuss communications strategies.

Paris, 22nd June 2022 – L’Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles (INJA) and the Confédération pour la Promotion Sociale des Aveugles et Amblyopes (CFPSAA) organized an homage to celebrate the induction of Louis Braille to the Panthéon 70 years ago. This commemorative act was also supported by other associations like la Fédération des Aveugles et Amblyopes de France (FAF), apiDV, Valentin Haüy or Voir Ensemble. The European Blind Union (EBU) participated in the commemorations to underline the international dimension that the invention of Louis Braille has for millions of blind and partially sighted people across Europe and around the world.

On Europe Day (May 9, 2022), a decentralised awareness-raising event on the topic of political participation was organised in 9 European countries involved in the PARVIS project. The event consisted of panel discussions with decision makers and a joint social media campaign, with the aim to improve accessible and secret voting, and representation of blind and partially sighted people in politics.

The project DANOVA – Innovative Transportation Services for Blind and Partially Sighted Persons is in its last year of implementation. Its main objective is to improve the accessibility of airports, seaports, train/bus stations to blind and partially sighted people by developing a set of new services and competencies in order to allow them to have full access to all transportation information, facilities, and services.

On the occasion of its 111th anniversary, the Swiss Federation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (SFB) held a panel discussion on "Safeguarding the political rights of blind and visually impaired people" in the run-up to its general assembly.

NCBI is on a mission to improve digital equality and inclusion for people who are blind or vision impaired. Monitoring and auditing websites and apps against the WCAG 2.1 standards of accessibility and the EU Web Accessibility Directive is the core business of IA Labs, a recently launched spin out company of NCBI. This group of specialist staff review and audit websites and apps thoroughly and provide actionable feedback to help clients improve their websites for people with disabilities.

For the second year in a row, Lithuanian blind people, together with professional composers, explore sounds in the sound art project “Visual background”. The initiators of the project are a composer Vladas Dieninis and the Public institution “Audialinės salos”, uniting independent music performers, educators and initiators of innovative music projects.

The Turkish Federation of the Blind is organizing  a 1-week vacation (6 nights and 7 daytime) for those who haven’t planned their vacation yet in a famous resort center Side, Antalya, Turkey between the 28th August and 3rd of September this year. The aim is to get the Turkish and foreign blind guests and their families together in a lovely atmosphere in the luxury of a 5-star hotel Otium Family Stone Palace.

The sixth edition of the Accessibility Days was held at the Institute of the Blind in Milan on 20-21 May 2022. Accessibility Days is one of the most awaited Italian events in the field of digital accessibility for people with disabilities, attended by developers, designers, content creators, teachers and accessibility experts.

With the financial support of the European Commission, EBU has produced its Annual Report 2021.

The recently published EBU Focus newsletter, entitled ‘A legal framework for our rights – a closer look at the UNCRPD’ looked in detail at this key legislative tool, and how it works in practice.