WE Summary of EU Disability Strategy 2010-2020

A Renewed Commitment to a Barrier-Free Europe  

On 15 November 2010, Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, presented the new Disability Strategy of the European Union.

The Strategy aims “to break down the barriers that prevent persons with disabilities from participating in society on an equal basis.” 

This Strategy is intended to harness the combined potential of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and the UN Convention, and to make full use of Europe 2020 and its instruments. It sets in motion a process to empower people with disabilities, so that they can participate fully in society on an equal basis with others.

As Europe’s population ages, these actions will have a tangible impact on the quality of life of an increasingly large proportion of its people.[1] 

The Commission intends to regularly report on the strategy’s progress and its compliance with the obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. The new Disability Strategy proposes action in the following 8 areas:[2] 

• Accessibility
• Participation  
• Equality 
• Employment 
• Education and Training 
• Social Protection 
• Health 
• External Action 

Details on the actions in the different areas can be found in the annex of the Disability Strategy “List of Actions 2010-15”.[3] 

The European Commission identifies the following main actions to deliver upon the overall targets lined out in the strategy.[4] 

• Accessibility initiative: considering how to use standardisation, public procurement or state aid rules to make all goods and services accessible to people with disabilities while fostering an EU market for assistive devices (“European Accessibility Act”);
• Participation: making sure that persons with disabilities and their families exercise their EU citizenship rights on an equal footing through facilitating the use of sign language and Braille when exercising EU citizens' electoral rights or dealing with EU institutions; promoting an accessible format of websites and copyrighted works, such as books; studying the possibility of mutual recognition of disability cards and related entitlements;
• Funding: ensuring that EU programmes and funds in policy areas relevant to people with disabilities are used to promote sound working conditions for professional and informal care providers and develop personal-assistance schemes;
• More cooperation between Member States (through the High Level Group on Disability) and civil society: providing a forum for the exchange of data and policy coordination, in particular on the portability of rights, such as the right to personal assistance;
• Awareness-raising such as through the European award for accessible cities;
• Data collection and monitoring while also identifying and promoting successful support structures put in place by Member States at national level. The actions mentioned above are underpinned by 4 instruments[5]:
• Awareness raising - Raise society’s awareness of disability issues and foster greater knowledge among people with disabilities of their rights and how to exercise them.
•  Financial Support - Optimise use of EU funding instruments for accessibility and non-discrimination and increase visibility of disability-relevant funding possibilities in post-2013 programmes.
• Statistics and data collection and monitoring - Supplement the collection of periodic disability-related statistics with a view to monitoring the situation of persons with disabilities.
• Mechanisms required by the UN Convention – Implement a governance framework required under Article 33 of the UN Convention (focal points, coordination mechanism, independent mechanism and involvement of people with disabilities and their organisations) In the area of employment, which is of course of particular interest to Workability Europe, the European Commission has listed key actions to “Improve the employment situation of women and men with disabilities through recognition of their right to work including the right to the opportunity to gain a living by work freely chosen or accepted in a labour market and work environment that is open, inclusive and accessible.”
•  Increase knowledge on employment situation of people with disabilities, identify challenges, propose remedies.
• Optimize the use of the new strategy for jobs and growth, "Europe 2020" for the benefit of people with disabilities.
• Focus on what people can do and persuade potential employers with convincing arguments and support to employ people with disabilities.
• Give special attention to difficulties of young people with disabilities in transition from education to employment and address intra job mobility including those working in sheltered workshops (access to and retention in employment).
• Address the issue of quality of jobs, such as salaries, working hours and career advancement of people with disabilities.
• Fight prevailing disability benefit cultures and help to integrate persons with partial work capacity into the labour market, further develop active labour market policies and tackle benefit traps. In the area of education & training, the key actions to “Ensure that people with disabilities receive the support required, within the general education system, to facilitate their education, and that effective individualized support measures are provided in environments that maximize academic and social development, consistent with the goal of full inclusion.”[7]
• Increase knowledge on education levels and opportunities of people with disabilities
• Support policy developments towards the goal of inclusive and quality education and training within the framework of the Youth on the move initiative
•  Increase the mobility of people with disabilities through enhancing their participation in the Lifelong Learning Programme and the Youth in Action Programme  

The previous Disability Action Plan 2003-2010 was developed in two-year phases and therefore policy priorities changed 2 years (i.e. 2008-2009 focussed on accessibility). Therein also lies the main difference between the DAP and the new strategy. While the old DAP was developed “along the way” and focussed on one priority at a time, the new strategy attempts to address the 8 issues mentioned above parallel to each other.