European Messenger

No 11 - March 2005

• Editorial

• Accession to the European Union - pros and cons - a Polish perspective

• Nothing about us without us

• Radio broadcasts about blind and partially sighted people

• Progress report on the UN convention to protect the rights of disabled people

Editorial

Welcome to the 11th edition of "The Messenger", brought to you by the members of the European Blind Union Commission on the Rights of Blind and Partially Sighted.

This spring issue includes some important pieces of information from different countries. The topic of ten new countries joining the European Union is still very fresh. People are cheering and discussing their experiences and concerns. Elzbieta Oleksiak from Poland has sent us her information about impressions of membership of the European Union.

Rodolfo Cattani, chairman of the EBU Commission for Liaising with the European Union has kindly agreed to write about the Commission's activities. The work in the mentioned commission is also a very new experience for the new EU countries.

The newsletter also includes Sergiu Ruba's article about a regular radio program about blind and partially sighted people in Romania.

Finally, Tony Aston, chairman of the EBU Commission on the Rights of Blind and Partially Sighted People presented us the progress report on the UN Convention to protect the rights of disabled people.

Dear friends, we always welcome your comments and suggestions.
Contacts for correspondence:
Tony Aston, chairman EBU Commission on the Rights of Blind and Partially Sighted People
taston@enterprise.net
Or
Audra Jozenaite
E-mail: audra@lass.lt


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Accession to the European Union - Pros and cons - a Polish Perspective

Elzbieta Oleksiak, Supervisor of the Rehabilitation Department at the Board of the Polish Association of the Blind, writes about first impressions of membership of the European Union.

It is as yet too early to give many examples of advantages, either for blind and partially sighted people or for the Polish Association, of membership of the European Union (EU). As yet, there are no concrete examples to be described of significant improvements in the quality of life for blind and partially sighted people. We can however, identify some potential advantages, provided that EU recommendations are quickly put into effect.

Some companies, for example, have already started to produce telephone bills, bank statements and other such documents in accessible formats for blind and partially sighted people; this is really helpful. Some Polish banks and pharmacies are also publishing brochures to inform blind, partially sighted and disabled people about access to their services. A number of these businesses have additionally taken action to improve access to their services for blind and partially sighted people.

Some professional groups of blind and partially sighted people, for example masseurs, can now expect to find work in other EU Member States, providing they can speak English. These opportunities are a great encouragement for young blind and partially sighted people to learn English.

An important activity for many people is obtaining information about possible financial improvement, new experiences or other benefits of EU accession.

The legal system in some EU Member States is more favourable to disabled people than in Poland. We therefore hope that our country will follow these good examples, and that new legislation will be advantageous to Polish disabled people.

One of the major potential benefits is the possibility of obtaining finance from EU structural funds. Some of them, for example the European Social Fund, and the funding for the Social and Vocational Integration of Disabled People, provide opportunities to apply for grants exclusively for activities to benefit disabled people, including blind and partially sighted people.

There are also some disadvantages of EU membership. Following EU Directives, we are moving towards, for example, educating blind and partially sighted children only in mainstream schools. Additionally, large rehabilitation centres and social help institutions are not perceived as the appropriate way to provide rehabilitation and personal services assistance. The EU considers that these services should preferably be provided as close as possible to the homes of the persons in need. This is not always feasible in our case. We think that there should be a smooth transition from one model of provision to another, as we cannot always afford, either financially or strategically, to develop new systems in Poland to quickly. There are additionally some specific groups, for example deafblind people, for whom we are not able to create small centres, or individual support in the community where service users live.

It is of course too early for either the Polish Association of the Blind or blind and partially sighted people in Poland to fully assess the opportunities and threats arising from our membership of the EU. Accession only occurred a year ago. However, we are beginning to appreciate the possibilities arising from stronger ties that our membership provides with other EU countries.


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Nothing about us without us

Rodolfo Cattani writes about the EBU Commission for Liaising with the European Union - Connecting EBU with the European institutions

Our Voice, Our Image, Our Presence

The above slogan heading the European Year of People with Disabilities can no doubt also be put on the top of this article, which describes the activities of one of the most relevant working Commissions of the European Blind Union.

In 1996 I was appointed Chairman of the EBU Commission for Liaising with the European Union (Liaison Commission), but I have been the representative of Italy in the Commission since its foundation in 1984. In 2003 I was reappointed to this position for the work period 2003-2007. Also, my predecessor Poul Luneborg had been leading the Commission for many years and left the Commission when he became President of the Danish Association of the Blind. I have learned a lot from his wisdom and expertise.

This was very important, because when I started working as Chairman I was not at all an expert on the European Union's (EU) policy and its institutions.

In 1997 the European Disability Forum (EDF) started its activity as the independent umbrella organisation of the European disability movement, and I was designated to represent EBU on its Board. The cooperation with EDF has been extremely useful and is one of the most important aspects of our work.

I consider that the Liaison Commission is a working tool of the EBU Board; it carries out political and administrative initiatives that concern blind and partially sighted people in the EU and beyond. This is the distinctive function of this Commission, which was set up when the EBU was founded in 1984, at a time when the relations with the European Commission were practically non-existent. Between 1988 and 1996, when the EU began developing initiatives in favour of organisations of disabled people, originating a series of programmes called HELIOS, the Liaison Commission was requested to try and obtain the EU's financial support for EBU, especially for the functioning of the Liaison Commission, as well as EBU's management and information activities. These programmes were strictly limited to the countries of the EU, but later on it also became possible to obtain funding for activities that involved external countries. This required EBU members to apply for projects that were developed under programmes such as Horizon, Phare, Tacis and Tide. The Liaison Commission tried to make the best of the funding opportunities which were offered.

In 1998 the campaign for an anti-discrimination clause in the European Treaty became a political priority. This was the beginning of our activity in the legislation field. At the same time the EU began to recognise the disability movement and started its first initiatives to promote our rights.

This is how the Liaison Commission became involved in its main working areas:
* to follow-up EU's disability policy;
* to advise the European Institutions on the interests of blind and partially sighted people;
* to take advantage of the European funding programmes for the benefit of EBU and its member organisations.


The structure of the Liaison Commission is very simple. Each member country is entitled to nominate one representative and a substitute, from which the EBU Board designates the Cabinet. This comprises the Chairperson, two Vice-Chairs, two ordinary members and a secretary. At the Liaison Commission's beginning, there were only twelve EU countries. At that time the Commission was a reasonable size. After the enlargement of the EU there were 25 member states. Moreover, the EBU General Assembly of 2003 in Athens agreed that Norway and Iceland, which belong to the European Economic Area (EEA), should be accepted as members, and that Bulgaria and Romania, which are expected to join the EU in 2007, should participate in the Liaison Commission with observer status. As a result, the Liaison Commission now has 29 member countries, a quite substantial number when organising and funding the meetings of the Commission and its activities. The EU enlargement is an outstanding political and historical event, but the management of the Liaison Commission has become extremely problematic, as the financial support from the EU has not been increased accordingly.

In my opinion the most important outcome of this development for the Liaison Commission was the involvement and participation of the new members. They have the opportunity to meet and exchange experiences with the older members. However, the new members are those who face the most significant financial difficulties arising from participation in the Liaison Commission.

It goes without saying that the Liaison Commission serves the interests of all EBU member countries, not just those who are actually members. This is important to appreciate, in order to avoid misunderstandings.

EBU's role as the representative organisation of blind and partially sighted people in the EU is highly appreciated by the institutions it works with, as well as EBU members. However, we should never forget that our group is relatively small compared to some other European organisations, such as those representing people with cognitive disabilities. It sometimes happens that our position differs from that of groups which do not have the same needs as ours. For instance, our position regarding education is slightly different from that of EDF. We do not oppose specialised education and support the choice of quality mainstream education for blind and partially sighted children and young people. The EBU, like many other single disability sector organisations, does not have the resources to carry out widespread lobbying campaigns. It is therefore reasonable to form campaigning alliances with like minded organisations to co-ordinate lobbying activities.

EBU was one of the founding organisations of EDF and it has played an important role in its development. We have been involved in a wide spectrum of EDF activities, including the evaluation of EU legislation, directives, communications, resolutions etc. These affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of blind and partially sighted co-citizens whom we represent. We do this by participating in working and study groups and advisory committees that are responsible for proposing and implementing solutions to disability related issues.

Here are some examples of fruitful cooperation between EBU and EDF -

* The inclusion in the Amsterdam Treaty of article 13, the first anti-discrimination clause in the European legislation
* the Buses and coaches Directive
* the Copyright Directive
* the Communications on "A barrier free Europe for people with disabilities" and on "Accessible public websites"
* the Employment Directive
* the European Year of People with Disabilities
* the Resolutions of the European Council of Ministers concerning accessibility of information and communications technologies for disabled people
* the "Council of Europe Disability Action Plan"


The Copyright Directive agreed by the EU in July 2000 has required an exceptional effort on our part. This was of particular importance for blind and partially sighted people. It could have imposed limitations on access to material protected by copyright, especially in the digital environment. EBU has taken the lead in this campaign for many years, spending a lot of energy and resources to interact with Members of the European Parliament and other influential groups. The end result was at least partly satisfactory, because the Directive guarantees blind and partially sighted people the right to access information. However, we were not able to have all limitations to access removed. For example, we were unsuccessful in having technical blocks removed, as these are not easy to circumvent. More generally, the Directive upholds the principle that the copyright holders interests prevail when there is conflict with accessibility requirements.

The Liaison Commission has also developed guidelines to ensure access to information, produced by the working group on accessible information. We have also produced a brochure and a leaflet to provide information about the reality of visual impairment and the activities of EBU, to enhance our visibility within European Institutions and elsewhere. We have participated in many consultation exercises, providing the European Commission with detailed and clear information about the needs of blind and partially sighted people in different spheres of life, such as education, employment, accessibility to goods and services and social security.

We are still able to obtain from the EU some support for our activities, although this is becoming increasingly difficult. The European Commission has never agreed to put into place a disability specific programme, or a more general non discrimination programme that provides support for European organisations representing disabled people. What is worse though is that the funds allocated for this purpose are being reduced all the time. Up to now we were able to provide EBU with some significant financial support, let's hope that this will also be possible in the years to come.

It is quite an achievement that up to now all our applications have been successful, although sometimes they had to be substantially revised. In the new call for proposals of the "Non Discrimination Action Programme" there is a change of perspective. Organisations of disabled people are requested to use the financial support from the Commission for activities which are strongly related to non discrimination. This is good in itself, as these activities must strictly comply with funding objectives identified by the Commission, such as awareness raising campaigns, capacity building workshops and leadership training seminars.

This has been extremely stimulating, but it is clear that our traditional activities no longer completely fit within this new political dimension. So we are called upon to develop new orientations. This is very positive, as it opens up new goals and perspectives for our organisation. It is also essential that we maintain the high quality of our applications and that we create new funding opportunities.

Our Commission can no longer provide funding without the participation, including the financial participation, of our national members. It is important, not only to promote the interests of the network of organisations of blind and partially sighted people, but also to include this network in the wider dimension of the general disability movement, so our interests are not underestimated and forgotten. This is a change of perspective which is quite innovative, but also a great challenge for our organisation.


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Radio broadcasts about blind and partially sighted people

Sergiu Ruba,vice-president of the Romanian Association of the Blind, describes how he established and presents a regular radio programme about visual impairment issues for blind and partially sighted people

The story starts at the end of 1991, when a senior editor at the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company organized voice and speech testing for "a very special future broadcast", as she used to say. The most important requirement of the project was the command of the specialised information that was to be communicated. I was one of the people who was tested against three major criteria: voice, speech and knowledge. I was finally accepted. Voice and speech had to be radiogenic, whilst knowledge had to cover, unusually for the public, areas of everyday life, deals, pains, skills, and aspirations of blind and partially sighted people. In other words, the experiences of the most confident visually impaired radio listeners. The goal of the project was to circulate information about blind and partially sighted people more rapidly than via Braille or talking magazines. We also aimed to produce a positive image of blind and partially sighted people and to increase awareness of the general public about different ways that blind and partially sighted people address problems of daily life. We wished to illustrate that visually impaired people share the same human values and aspirations.

Our model for the programme is the BBC "In touch" series, which is edited and presented at the microphone by blind journalists. So, I had to find a name for the new Romanian Public Radio Companies broadcast. After reflection, I decided to name it "The Interior Eye", in its original language, "Ochiul Interior".

The first ten minutes broadcast of The Interior Eye was transmitted on Monday, February 17th 1992, at 9.45 am, on the main public radio channel, Romania News. The initial experiment seemed to be successful and it was subsequently adopted by the Broadcasting Company and integrated into the programme schedule. Since 1997 it has lasted 20 minutes and is transmitted on Friday night, from 8.40 to 9 p.m. From the beginning, I worked with a colleague, a feminine voice for the sake of an expressive contrast. My partner is usually a university student in journalism. She typically reads the text that I have proposed. In the radio studio, a technician mixes our selection of music with our narrative either before or during the programme. The content is a rich variety: current information about events blind and partially sighted people are involved in, the National Organization and its branches campaigning projects, news about schools and activities of the authorities in touch with blind and partially sighted people. Interviews, reports, portraits and commentary on legislative and administrative documents are the normal content of the programme. Since 2002, all the vocal taped interventions in the programme have been edited by me on a minidisk player.

A real improvement of the image of blind and partially sighted people in our society and the increasing awareness by the general public of the actual challenges of our everyday lives are manifestly the major benefits of these broadcast. An example: after an interview with a blind man speaking about his hobbies, skills and competences, his neighbours start to regard him in a different light. He now has a certain human value, in a little known area, but a real value all the same.

Clearly, such a broadcast by the public Radio Company via its main channel has great advantages; it reaches every corner of the country, each small village in the mountains or in the Danube Delta. In addition, we shouldn't forget that Romania has a population of 22 million people, and another three million Romanian speaking people living in the Moldova Republic. We often receive letters from Moldova and from the Romanian minorities of the surrounding countries. Listening to "Interior Eze" people with no access to specialized sources of information, found suitable services for their blind children and for elderly members of their families. They also identified sources of counselling and advocacy.

In 1999, the Radio Company offered another opportunity to blind and partially sighted people. They had noticed that in our country there are many blind able poetry and prose authors. They were unknown because of a range of social barriers. The Radio Company decided to broadcast their works in a new programme: its name is "In the soul light", it lasts ten minutes, and is transmitted each Saturday evening, starting at 8.50 pm, on the same Romania News Channel. I have been editing this programme from its inception in 1999. This literary programme also includes fiction by well known blind authors and fiction or essays about blindness. Mythology provides an ideal source of examples and images for this programme.

Last but not least, one of the outcomes of these programmes was that three youngsters from different cities became journalists at FM radio stations . Many other sound activities are accessible to a blind person, that's why a manual of sound engineering for blind people would be so useful throughout Europe.


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Progress report on the UN convention to protect the rights of disabled people

By Tony Aston, Chairman of the EBU Commission on the Rights of Blind and Partially Sighted People

Where we have come from

In the autumn of 2001 the United Nations (UN) General Assembly passed a resolution to establish an Ad Hoc Committee to consider proposals for a UN convention to protect and promote the rights and dignity of disabled people. The Ad Hoc Committee has since met approximately twice each year in New York. Its meetings last about two weeks.

Alongside the meetings of the Ad Hoc Committee, a group of international organisations that represent the interests of disabled people has met. This is known as the 'International Disability Caucus' (IDC). The World Blind Union (WBU) is an active member and its representative on the IDC is Kicki Nordström. It has met in New York at the same time as the Ad Hoc Committee. It can then interact with the government delegations that make up the membership of the Ad Hoc Committee to influence their thinking on the content of the Convention.

The Ad Hoc Committee set up an Expert Working Group to prepare a draft Convention. Representatives of international organisations of disabled people fully participated in the meeting of this Group that took place in January 2004. The Expert Working Group submitted a draft Convention to the Ad Hoc Committee and this has subsequently provided the basis for the Committee's work.


Where we are now

The fifth meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee took place from 24 January to 4 February this year in New York. As usual, the IDC held a parallel meeting. The Expert Working Group's draft Convention contained approximately 24 Articles. At this meeting, the Ad Hoc Committee discussed Articles 7 through to 15. However, as at previous meetings, the text of Articles being discussed were not finalised. Essentially, the outcome was to identify sections of text where there was a measure of agreement amongst the participating national delegations. Differences of view on text were also clarified.

The IDC worked on its own draft of Articles ahead of those being considered by the Ad Hoc Committee. This enabled the IDC representatives to circulate their preferred text of Articles together with briefing papers to members of Ad Hoc Committee Delegations and to lobby them on IDC's views. Selected IDC members were also able to make brief presentations to informal meetings of the Ad Hoc Committee on specific issues relating to Convention Articles under discussion. In this way IDC was able to exert some influence on the views of Ad Hoc Committee Delegations and hence on the contents of the Convention.


Where we go next

Prior to the fifth meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee there had been some pressure for it to complete its task by the autumn of this year. It now seems to be generally accepted that the preparation of this Convention will continue well into 2006. The IDC has already started to review the contents of its own draft Articles that have yet to be considered by the Ad Hoc Committee. This is done via an e-mail discussion page and enables a wider group of disabled people to express their views on Articles' contents. I work with Kicki on these Articles on behalf of WBU.

Regular readers of this Newsletter will recollect the work we did to prepare a WBU Manifesto on the Convention. The Manifesto provides guidance for us in this work. Of course, we don't always persuade other participants in this exercise to support our position on some issues. In these instances we try to achieve a compromise position.


Where we are trying to get to

The Ad Hoc Committee is clearly some way from finalising the text of the Convention. This is in one respect a good thing; it enables the IDC to continue to try to exert influence where necessary. We are in a position where 'nothing is agreed until everything is agreed'. That has its strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand we can continue to try to change the positions of those who disagree with us. On the other hand, text that accords with our particular views is also revisited and altered! Clearly, there are differences of views between the various disability organisations, though in general there is a willingness to negotiate and compromise. There are also differences between the Ad Hoc Committee and the IDC. Generally nations wish to see a weaker text than the IDC. There are also accommodations to be made between the developed and developing countries. Too strong a Convention may make it extremely difficult for poor nations to meet the standards of the Convention, so they may not be willing to sign up to it. A 'soft' convention however will do very little for disabled people in wealthier countries. I suggest we ought not to expect too much from this Convention. Nevertheless, it is potentially the most significant instrument for change for disabled people in this decade.


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