Workshop on Strategies to combat discrimination of blind and partially sighted people in the field of Accessibility to Employment, ICT,
Mobility and Transport

With the financial support of the European Community Action Programme to Combat Discrimination

Bratislava (Slovak Republic), 1 – 3 September 2006

 

I. Introduction

In the framework of the European Community Action Programme to Combat Discrimination 2000-2006 EBU organised a Workshop on strategies to combat discrimination of blind and partially-sighted people in the field of accessibility to employment, ICT, mobility and transport. The Workshop took place on September 1 - 3 in Bratislava (Slovak Republic).

Participants were all the experts who had attended the three previous Workshops organised in Paris, Vilnius and Trieste, each on one of the three fields mentioned above. The aim of this Workshop was to analyse the outcome of the three thematic Workshops and to take stock of the respective conclusions in order to elaborate a proposal for a policy paper illustrating the difficulties that visually disabled people are still facing in the broad area of accessibility. The second important topic to discuss at the Workshop was the final draft of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, approved by the Ad Hoc Committee during its meeting in New-York at the end of August.

Most of the participants were blind or partially-sighted themselves.

2. Objectives of the Workshop

The first part of the of the workshop was dedicated to the presentation and discussion of the reports of the thematic workshops. The session was facilitated by Mr. Rodolfo Cattani member of the Executive Committee of the European Disability Forum, responsible for accessibility issues, who reminded the audience that 2006 was the last year of the current Community Action Programme and that from 2007 to 2013 there would be a new Community Programme called "Progress", under which European NGOs such as EBU were supposed to get funding for their activities. Progress should be managed by DG Employment, Social Protection and Equal Opportunities, which could be considered a positive development.

He than pointed out the high quality of the reports of the thematic workshops, which gave a clear picture of the various barriers that hinder blind and partially-sighted people to participate in the IKS (Information and Knowledge-based Society) on an equal footing with their non disabled peers.

3. Access to employment

The first paper to be discussed were the comments of EBU experts on the Guidelines for the Employment Policies of the Member States of the European Union issued in 2005 and to be revised in 2008.

The participants agreed on some basic principles.

One of the main priorities for EBU is to reduce unemployment and inactivity of blind and partially-sighted people and promote a life-cycle approach to work. In order to promote the inclusion of blind and partially-sighted workers in the labour market the European Commission and the Member States should ensure that best practice pertains everywhere with regard to:

educational opportunities, provision of access technology, support teachers and all other appropriate assistance;

measures to facilitate lifelong learning for visually disabled people by making their social inclusion effective through providing financial support, accessible transport and appropriate technology;

retention at work of visually disabled people who loose their sight during working life by appropriate measures such as rehabilitation leave and provision of impairment specific services for rehabilitation and job seeking;

provision of supported employment when needed and devising an "employment continuum" to enable visually and otherwise disabled people to move gradually from inactivity to mainstream employment;

removal of all financial barriers to the employment of disabled people by ensuring that work is financially advantageous for both the employer and the disabled worker;

measures to overcome the "digital divide" by ensuring access to ICT for personal and professional use.

The participants then examined the paper on "Promoting supported employment for blind people in Europe".

The authors recognise that globalisation is bringing about great changes in European labour markets and this requires a period of adjustment and experimentation in methods of including disabled people. EBU strongly believes that no adult is in principle unemployable and this principle should be inscribed in law in every state. Employment policies for visually disabled people should take into account their specific needs and choices. Mainstream employment is the most appropriate solution for a genuine social inclusion, but sheltered working places can play a role in the employment of blind people under certain circumstances if they are productive, employ disabled and non disabled workers and benefit from public support (e.g. procurement regulations).

The most effective way to increase employment of visually disabled people seems to be the so called "employment continuum", i.e. the gradual transition from inactivity to inclusion in the mainstream labour market. To this aim, governments should support the creation of social firms by appropriate means as they can be a model for the labour market as regards the employment of low incidence groups such as blind and partially-sighted people. Governments should also support those firms which are prepared to provide work for disabled people who are not fully productive.

As a matter of fact visually disabled people cannot be trained in exactly the same way as sighted disabled people and it is unlikely that specialist staff such as job coaches could be provided on the required scale. Therefore, rehabilitation standards must be worked out.

There are two employment models for disabled people, the "Seamless inclusion model" and the "progression model", the second one seems to better suite the needs of blind people. The question of mainstream employment vs. sheltered workplace remains open, as the number of blind people with additional disabilities is dramatically increasing.

Workshop participants agreed on the position that EBU should consider mainstream education and employment as one of it priorities, though taking into account in a pragmatism and flexible way the specific needs of the group that its member organisations represent.

4. Access to ICT

The report of the expert meeting on equal opportunities in access to technology was discussed.
The meeting focussed on information and communication technology with the following objectives:

to identify the problems faced by blind, deaf-blind, partially-sighted people and blind people with additional disabilities in this area;

to highlight the positive actions taken by the EU to address these problems;

to outline ways and means to enhance equal opportunities regarding accessibility of modern technologies, especially within the framework set out by the EU;

to look at the role and responsibilities NGOs representing blind and partially-sighted people have in bringing about changes resulting in further progress.

The thematic workshop covered the following areas that were extensively presented and discussed.

How will next generation of telecommunications networks and services impact on disabled people ?

Telecommunications: in this field there is an ongoing trend towards fully visual approach, which may result in growing accessibility limitations especially for visually disabled people.

Global positioning systems and navigation devices: we are not aware of any European wide project targeted at and involving disabled users.

Information kiosks, ticket machines and banking services: the importance of electronic devices and services in this area is growing and a standardised approach is urgently needed. A suitable technical solution to ensure accessibility could be the use of RFID tags to activate the respective terminals which would than provide information over Blue Tooth or Internet connections to the mobile networks.

Web access: Web accessibility is relatively well developed, but possible barriers could be created by AJAX. The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative should take action urgently.

Digital television: the access to digital television programmes and services by means of appropriate technology is a high priority of EBU., as access to information and entertainment is a fundamental right of visually disabled users the denial of which is a patent form of discrimination.

Digital libraries: the content of libraries and other repositories of printed material is in the process of being digitised and put on the Web. In order to be beneficial to visually disabled people this content must be presented in a format and delivered according to methods which are accessible. A further harmonisation of national copyright law according to European standards is required as well as measures to make Member States apply more strictly the European copyright regulations.
E-learning: educational content is offered in electronic or blended formats; e-learning platforms however often do not take into account the requirements of visually impaired users who are already significantly under-represented in the labour market. Europe wide legislation should ensure equal participation to prevent a further deterioration of access to a meaningful employment and social inclusion.

The accessibility experts identified three instruments already in place in order to improve equal opportunities of visually disabled people: public procurement measures, EU legislation already in existence and statements such as the Riga Ministerial Declaration of June 2006.
Key elements in achieving greater access to the wider Information Society is the active participation of disabled people in planning, evaluating and standard setting processes, which requires EU funding to European NGOs. Concerning goods, services and systems the principle of design for all should never be ignored.
Four areas of to be dealt with urgently were identified: - access to e-learning and e-inclusion; - national and European assistance in developing speech synthesis for minority and migrant languages; - access to the as basis for participating in any kind of social activities; - availability of training and experienced trainers in order to ensure successful use of devices and services and active participation in society.

5. Access to mobility and transport

The workshop on equal opportunities in mobility and transport had prepared a comprehensive report which was presented to the participants by the chair of the EBU working group on Mobility and Guide Dogs. The objectives of the workshop were the following:

to identify the problems that visually disabled people experience in this field;

to highlight the positive developments in the EU;

the indicate the way forward and which instruments could be used in the best possible way;

to look at the role and the duties of the organisations representing visually impaired people in order to promote the interests of their constituency. The participants had examined extensively the legislative framework and policy context of non-discrimination and equal opportunities, the position of accessibility in mobility and transport within the context of the non-discrimination strategy of the EU.

The instruments for achieving accessibility in mobility and transport and the role of NGOs had been also discussed. Reference had been also made to important financial instruments providing funds for taking the issue of access forward, namely the Directives on public procurement and the new regulations of the European Structural Funds.

Key problems identified:

awareness raising of non-discrimination and equal opportunities must be intensified and brought to the man in the street in order to mobilise people; EBU should publish a guide on non-discrimination;

education is very important and a powerful agent in making people aware of what discrimination is and how in can be avoided; national and local organisations of visually disabled people have an important role to play in collaborating with the authorities and concerned;

governments should provide funding for mobility training courses and the training and recruitment of mobility instructors to ensure that efficient services are provided;

the European Commission should give more attention to disability accessibility issues.

The participants had identified for key issues which should be addressed at European level: - access to transport infrastructures and the built environment; - access to rolling stock and vehicles; - access to information and services; - seamless transport.

EBU had a major role to play in promoting equal opportunities in mobility and access to transport; a policy paper should be produced on access and accessibility explaining the needs of blind and partially-sighted people as regards with orientation, information design of good services.

Despite the fact that some progress doubtlessly have been achieved, blind and partially-sighted people experience discrimination in access to mobility and transport: to achieve further progress in this field EBU is urgently recommended to follow closely all present legislation underway and ensure that the mobility and transport needs of visually disabled travellers are taken on board.

6. Presentation of the UN Convention to protect and promote the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities

The facilitator of the workshop gave a presentation of the last draft of the text of the UN Convention on the rights of disabled people. He reminded the participants about the long and complex route of the proposal, which had been discussed by an ad-hoc committee for more than three years. the final draft had been approved at the end of august and had been referred to a drafting committee in charge of reviewing the text merely for linguistic consistency, in such a way that no substantive changes of its meaning or inference would be made. The revised text will return to the ad hoc committee for consideration at a short meeting prior to the ratification by the UN General Assembly which could take place in December this year.

The act of signing the Convention by a Government indicates its intention to recognise and to provide the rights embodied in the document. This will not happen automatically. Some Governments will ratify the whole of the Convention, amending the national laws which may be in contradiction with the Convention, others will make use of the principle of progressivity, according to which countries may postpone for some time the implementation of parts of the Convention; states will also be allowed to opt out of some parts of the Convention, if they object to or do not agree with the provision of particular rights to persons with disabilities. Several years will pass before countries adopt some or all of the Convention's provisions. Organisations representing disabled people should campaign for the implementation of at least those parts of the Convention that are a priority for their constituency. Finally, the speaker presented the articles of the Convention which were most relevant to the interests of blind and partially-sighted people, in particular these related to rehabilitation, education and employment.

A lively debate followed this presentation, during which many important issues were discussed, namely the definitions of discrimination and disability, the impact of the Convention on the life of the individuals, the various ways it would be implemented in countries with different social systems and economic resources.

The participants agreed on the need to promote the ratification of the Convention and to support the proposal made by the chair of the rights committee of EBU Tony Aston.

There should be three strands of activities:

1. derive from the UN Convention a list of the rights required by blind and partially-sighted people which should be based on their specific needs and characteristics;

2. establish and maintain a database on the EBU website that indicates the extent to which each EBU member country's legislation corresponds to the provisions of the Convention;

3. establish a network of people in EBU member organisations with a responsibility for and a commitment to the implementation of the Convention in the interest of visually disabled people.

7. Discussion of a draft EBU policy paper on strategies to combat discrimination of blind and partially-sighted people in the field of accessibility to employment, ICT, mobility and transport

After having examined and discussed the working documents of the three thematic workshops, the participants expressed the unanimously the opinion that a policy paper on non discrimination and accessibility concerning visually disabled people should be drafted after this conclusive workshop. Different suggestions were made regarding the need for rehabilitation standards, the terminology to be used when defining and explaining specific issues such as discrimination, positive action and other more technical terms used in the official language of the European Institutions; the need to define the target of the document and the way to present the information. The policy paper should summarise the results of the workshops and give a clear picture of the needs, the problems and the aspirations of blind and partially-sighted people in the field of accessibility and show the possible solutions and the proposals which can bring about new developments.

The awareness of rights and equality should be emphasised and the concepts of non discrimination and positive action should be linked to the daily life experience of the readers.

The paper should consist of three sections:

1. definitions and history; non-discrimination actions at EU level; European Human Rights Convention, Madrid Declaration; other relevant documents;

2. practical examples of discriminatory behaviour (employment, technology, mobility); how to combat discrimination in practice;

3. proposals for action arising from the thematic workshops.

The policy paper should be ready as soon as possible in order to be circulated to the national member organisations.