The European Disability Action Plan and e-Accessibility standardisation Inmaculada Placencia Porrero Deputy Head of Unit Directorate General Employment,

Europe a n Commis s ion

Employme nt & S ocia l Affa irs

The European Disability Action Plan and e-Accessibility standardisation

Inmaculada Placencia Porrero

Deputy Head of Unit

Directorate General Employment, Social affairs and equal opportunities

Unit Integration of People with Disabilities

[email protected]

Martina Sindelar

Principal Administrator

Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry

Unit ICT for Competitiveness and Innovation

[email protected]



KEY FIGURES KEY FIGURES

44.6 MILLION44.6 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 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 50% OF DISABLED PERSONS ARE EMPLOYED COMPARED TO TO 68% OF NON DISABLED68% 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.



Euro barometer "Discrimination in the European Union" 2007 on disability matters

• Almost 90% of the population in Europe see the need to increase the participation of people with disabilities in society and strengthen action to combat discrimination in employment

• 91% of respondent agree to spend more money in eliminating physical barriers for people with disabilities

• This overwhelming support is particular important considering the relation between disability and ageing. The support to expending more money on accessibility supports, in particular the work on accessibility requirements in public procurement



INCLUDING ALL PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES INCLUDING ALL PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Why a DISABILITY STRATEGY AT EU LEVEL?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 . from Equal Rights to Equal Opportunities….Equal Opportunities….

....from 2003 to 2010.......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



Four pillarsFour pillars

EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LEGISLATION AND MEASURESEU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LEGISLATION AND MEASURES: Providing access to individual rights (Directive 2000/78/EC, Anti-Discrimination Programme)

MAINSTREAMING OF DISABILITY ISSUESMAINSTREAMING OF DISABILITY ISSUES : Mainstreaming in order to facilitate active inclusion of disabled people

ACCESSIBILITYACCESSIBILITY : Elimination of obstacles preventing disabled people from exercising their abilities

MOBILISING STAKEHOLDERS THROUGH DIALOGUEMOBILISING STAKEHOLDERS THROUGH DIALOGUE : with (1) Member States, (2) people with disabilities, (3) civil society representatives and (4) other stakeholders



DISABILITY ACTION PLANDISABILITY ACTION PLANSET-UP MONITORING & FOLLOW-UPSET-UP MONITORING & FOLLOW-UP

• THROUGH INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORKTHROUGH 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 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

• The Communication highlights that disability is a human rights and not a social discretional matter :

– analyses developments in the situation of disabled people,

– reports on the achievements of the second phase of the Commission Disability Action Plan (2006- 2007),

– defines the priorities for the third phase of the Action Plan (2008-2009) in line with the Commission strategic objectives on equal opportunities for disabled persons




• 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




• 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



eAccessibility

Design-for-All

Intelligent systems for social inclusion

Intelligent systems forIndependent living

Assistive Technology- intelligent interfaces

Person . . . . Home/Work . . . Community . . . Society

Barrier free technologies

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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 376 onEuropean requirements for the public purchase

of ICT goods and services

• Addressed to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI• Phase I: Inventory

– Inventory of existing European and international functional requirements and standards/technical specifications (ETSI)

– Analysis on testing and conformity assessment (CEN/CENELEC)

• Phase II: Standardisation Activities• European standard (EN) • Technical report (TR) and support guidelines• On line freely accessible toolkit



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 YOURATTENTION!



For further information …

• On European accessibility strategy• http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/disability/index_en.html

• projects financed in RTD in previous frame work programmes • http://www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_f/einclusion/previous-research.htm

• On the preparatory work for eInclusion research for Frame work programme 7• http://www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_f/einclusion/future.htm

• On eInclusion and eAccessibility policies• http://europa.eu.int/information_society/soccul/eincl/index_en.htm• http://europa.eu.int/information_society/policy/accessibility/index_en.htm

• [email protected]

Documents

The European Disability Action Plan and e-Accessibility standardisation Inmaculada Placencia Porrero Deputy Head of Unit Directorate General Employment,