April 2020

New information on our accessible lifts and accessible books campaigns, including the importance of the latter during the Covid 19 crisis.

Mokrane Boussaïd, EBU Executive Director since 1993, is going to retire on 30 April. For more than 27 years he has been the centre of the EBU office and secretariat in Paris.

We exceptionally take the opportunity of this newsletter to send our best wishes to our director Mokrane Boussaïd for his retirement.

A small team is like a family and over the years we have shared many adventures and challenges, always bearing in mind our collective mission.

As many of you will be aware EBU has created a COVID 19 resource page on our website, to which some of you have already contributed. Thank you for these useful contributions!

Welcome to this month's edition of the EBU Access Cast. As always, we are bringing you some pretty exciting news in the area of assistive technology.

The current situation caused by the spread of the novel Coronavirus has impacted our lives in multiple ways, especially so in the case of people with visual impairments. It is therefore difficult to escape this subject completely. The news, however, will definitely be useful in coping with the new reality of self-isolation, social distancing and working remotely.

We also mentioned some of those general tips and tricks that will let you stay safe as well as discussed campaigns of the disability umbrella organizations started to ensure that whatever strategy is applied to combat the virus in the different European countries, their disabled citizens will be a part of it...

Are you young and ambitious, passionate about technology, and think that you know something about assistive technology? If so, then you can perhaps become a new contributor to the EBU Access Cast podcast!

The Council of Europe has launched an updated version of its free online “Introduction to the European Convention on Human Rights”, a 5-hour interactive training course aimed at legal professionals, public authorities, civil society and students.

“Europe has the strongest system of international human rights protection anywhere in the world, thanks to the European Convention on Human Rights. For the system to fulfil its potential, we need lawyers, judges, government officials, NGOs and other professionals across Europe to learn how it functions and to use that knowledge in their daily work,” said Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić.