European Disability Action Plan and eAccessibility: Statistics and Policies, Slides of Introduction to Sociology

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The European Disability Action Plan and e-

Accessibility standardisation

KEY FIGURES

 44.6 MILLION in Europe – one in six – persons aged between 16 and 64 report

a long standing health problem or disability

 16% of the overall EU working age population

 63% OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ARE OLDER THAN 45. Nearly

30% of people in the age group 55-64 report a disability. The incidence of disability

will increase as the EU population gets older.

 50% OF DISABLED PERSONS ARE EMPLOYED COMPARED TO

68% OF NON DISABLED

 Only 15.9% of working disabled persons are provided with some

assistance to work. At the same time, 43.7% of respondents believe they

could work if they were given adequate assistance.

INCLUDING ALL PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Why a DISABILITY STRATEGY AT EU LEVEL?

Disability policies are essentially the responsibility of the

Member States.

However, European Community policies and actions impact in

many ways on situation of people with disabilities.

Hence, there is a need to (1) reinforce the disability

dimension in all relevant EU policies and actions and

to (2) establish a sustainable and operational

approach to disability in the EU.

…. from Equal Rights to

Equal Opportunities….

....from 2003 to 2010...

 Disability is a right issue and not a matter of discretion: this approach

is at the core of the UN Convention of the rights of People with Disabilities,

to which the European Community is a signatory

 People with disabilities have the same rights as non disabled

persons and should have access to them in practice: enabling people

with disabilities to enjoy their rights is at the centre of the EU actions

 Requires adequate policy and actions defined together with people

with disabilities themselves : mainstreaming is a crucial methodology

allowing to take into account the needs of people with disabilities at all

stages of policy developments

DISABILITY ACTION PLAN

SET-UP MONITORING & FOLLOW-UP

• THROUGH INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

• Disability High Level Group meetings , comprising MS and third sector representatives.
• Disability Inter-Service Group meetings , comprising civil servants from different directorates general.
• Dialogue with the EP , monitoring of Parliamentary Inter-Service group activities
• Dialogue with CoR and EESC

• THROUGH OTHER MEANS

• Dialogue with Social Partners and other relevant stakeholders
• Establishment of the Action Plan scoreboard allowing continual monitoring of the implementation process
• Through eventual meetings of MS disability ministers
• Academic network of disability experts

European policy priorities

Priority areas

• Improve access and retention of employment
• Lifelong learning
• Using the potential of new technologies
• Accessibility in public procurement and to the public built

environment

• Support of international activities (UN Convention, revision of

section 508 of US Antidiscrimination Act, EU-US ICT

standardisation dialogue on e-accessibility)

2007 Commission Communication on the

situation of people with disabilities

• Data analysis confirms:
  • still considerable gaps between people with disabilities and

people without disabilities,

• these gaps are even more visible by multiple discrimination, i.g.

women with disabilities.

• These differences in equality pose several challenges in

the context of the UN Convention on the Rights of

Persons with Disabilities which the European Community

and all Member States except one signed earlier this year

• In this respect, the focus for the third phase (2008-2009)

of the Disability Action Plan

2007 Commission Communication on the

situation of people with disabilities

• The Communication identifies 2 areas with 5 priorities:
• Actions for inclusive participation through accessibility:
  • Fostering accessibility of the labour market
  • Boosting accessibility of goods, services and infrastructures,

addressing transport ICT and built environment.

• Consolidating the Commission’s analytical capacity to support

accessibility

• Actions towards full enjoyment of fundamental rights:
  • Facilitating the implementation of the UN Convention
  • Complementing the Community legislative framework of

protection against discrimination

Accessibility and Public procurement:

the market

• Revised public procurement Directives
• PP 16% EU gross domestic product 1500 Billion Euros
• ICT sector 6% EU GDP ( ICT 594 billion Euro)
• European public sector ICT spending of European public sector is 0,8 % of GDP =76billion Euro
• Public procurement comprises about 40% of the total production value in construction
• The European construction market is about 10% of GDP and 7% of the workforce.
• The residential sector represents 46% of the total EU production, the non-residential sector 31% and infrastructure 23%.
• Modernisation of existing buildings and infrastructure versus new construction
• 40% of the entire construction sector production has the public hand as a customer, mostly outside the residential housing segment

Public Procurement Directives

• The preambles to the revised Directives (paragraph 29 of Directive 2004/18/EC and paragraph 42 of Directive 2004/17/EC) now state that: “Contracting authorities should, whenever possible, lay down technical specifications so as to take into account accessibility criteria for people with disabilities or design for all users.”
• In addition, the specific Articles on technical specifications (Article 23, Paragraph 1 of Directive 2004/18/EC and Article 34, Paragraph 1 of Directive 2004/17/EC) now state that: “Whenever possible [these] technical specifications should be defined so as to take into account accessibility criteria for people with disabilities or design for all users.”
• Award phase…(art 53)

the criteria on which the contracting authorities shall base the award of public contracts shall either: (a) when the awards is made to the tender most economically advantageous from the point of view of the contracting authority, various criteria linked to the subject matter of the public contract in question, for example quality, price, technical merit, aesthetic and functional characteristics, environmental characteristics,…. (b) the lowest price

Mandate 420 on Accessibility of the Built

Environment

• Addressed to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI
• Standards for addressing accessibility of the built environment in the context of

public procurement.

• Covering:
  • Public buildings, public places, parkings, roads, schools, hospitals, sport

facilities, etc

• Transport facilities such as airports, train/coach stations, ports, etc
• Inventory of functional requirements and technical specifications
• Addressing the wide spectrum of people with different impairments of all ages

and age-related limitations

• In coordination with Mandate M 376 (Accessibility issues in ICT products and

services for public procurement)

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR

ATTENTION!