EU Disability policies and actions
8 November 2019
EU Disability policies and actions
One of the EDF top campaigns, Freedom of Movement, calls for actions to remove the barriers which people with disabilities face across the EU in travelling, accessing mainstream goods and services, transport, study, job or information.
www.edf-feph.org
At the level of the European Union, the European Disability Forum (EDF) – a European umbrella organisation representing the interests of 80 million people with disabilities – has lobbied with others for the recognition of the rights of disabled persons. The result is a specific reference to discrimination on the grounds of disability in the Treaty of Amsterdam, and the EU Directive on Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation, which prohibits discrimination in the field of employment on the ground of disability and encourages reasonable accommodation.
Article 26 of the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights (2000) recognises and respects the right of people with disabilities to benefit from measures designed to ensure their independence, social and occupational integration and participation in the life of the community. In 2010 the European Commission adopted the EU Disability Strategy 2010-2020, which aims to empower people with disabilities so that they can benefit fully from participating in society and in the European economy.
The attitudinal barriers will exist as long as the majority of people still see the disability and not the person.
Karina Chupina
The European Union has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, becoming the first regional integration organisation to sign up to any human rights treaty18. All institutions and agents of the EU will have to endorse the values of the Convention in all policies under their competence ensuring the mainstreaming of disability: from transport to employment and from information and communication technologies to development co-operation. They will also have to adjust the accessibility of their own buildings, and their employment and communications policy.