QUESTIONNAIRE GERMANY

EBU Questionnaire Survey on the situation of blind and partially sighted people
across the 27 EU Member States

September 2007

 

Name: Kaltwasser

Organisation: German Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted

Country: Germany

e-mail address: h.kaltwasser@dbsv.org

Telephone number: + 49 30 28 53 87-12


1/ Benefits


1.1. Does your country have any form of benefits system/ allowance for blind or partially sighted people?
Answer Yes End answer


1.2. If yes, is this allowance sufficient or does it need to be increased ?
Answer Needs to be increased End answer


2/ Transport / Mobility

 
2.1. Does your country provide blind and partially sighted people with any form of assistance for access to public transportation?
Answer Yes End answer

2.2. If yes, in what form?
 

2.2.1. Facilities allowing a better accessibility of public transport for blind and partially sighted people:
Answer Yes End answer

2.2.2. Financial aid:
Answer Yes End answer

2.2.3. If yes, is this assistance available :
At reduced cost / Free of charge /
Answer Other Other (explanation) Disabled people are entitled to used public transport free of charge within a radius of 50 km of the home. Beyond there is free transport on a limited number of routes and trains. In long distance transport the blind traveller has to pay the fare while his guide is free. He may also take with him a guide dog free of charge. End answer
Don’t know.
 


2.3. Are there any measures facilitating the mobility of blind of partially sighted people?
Answer Yes End answer

 2.3.1 If yes, are they:

Financing of guide dogs. Answer Yes End answer
Tactile paving.  Answer Yes End answer
Provision of auditory means of communication.
Provision of auditory signals at crosswalks.  Answer Yes End answer
Other (please explain)
Don’t know.
 

2.4. Concerning accessibility / transport in general, what suggestions for improvement do you have?
Answer DBSV is campaigning for audio traffic lights to be retained, especially at complex crossroads and roundabouts. In many cities and communities they are being replaced by zebra crossings. For orientation aids a unified standard should be created. A minimum height of the curb should be retained. Where shared spaces are set up, the needs of blind and partially sighted people should be taken into account more properly. There should be accessible travel information, better lighting in public placesand awareness training of personal. End answer
 


3/ Employment


3.1. Are private companies under any obligation to recruit a certain number of disabled people?
Answer Yes End answer

3.2. Are some jobs reserved in priority for:

3.2.1. Disabled people?
Answer No End answer

3.2.2. Blind or partially sighted people?
Answer No End answer


3.3. Are there any targeted wage subsidies or bonus for employers who recruit blind and partially sighted people?
Bonus.
Targeted wage subsidies.  Answer Yes  End answer
Answer Other Other (explanation) There are subsidies for adapting the workplace and employing a personal assistant as well.  End answer
Don’t know.


3.4. Does your country have sheltered workshops or any other kind of structure employing only blind and partially sighted people?
Answer  Yes End answer

3.5. Are there any other incentives in your country to facilitate blind and partially sighted people’s employment?
Answer  Don’t know End answer


3.6. What is the situation with regard to the employment of blind and partially sighted women:
Under-employment.
Discrimination in recruitment.
Discrimination in wages.
Answer  Don’t know.  End answer


3.7. Concerning employment in general, what kind of suggestion for improvement do you have?
Answer Under the labour law the disability units within the labour offices have been abolished and been replaced by job centers with personal who is not very competent nor much aware of the needs of blind and partially sighted job seekers. Much expertise has been lost through the labour market reforms. The general attitude of the staff at the job centers is that a disabled person is not employable. Staff should be trained better and become more aware of the needs and skills of blind and partially sighted job seekers.

The “equilisation levy”, i.e. money which an employer needs to pay into the equilisation fund for every workplace he would need to fill to meet the quota should be increased. The fund is used to make adaptation of the workplace and other measures to facilitate the employment of disabled people End answer
 



4/ Education


4.1. Does your country have specialized schools for blind of partially sighted children?
Answer  Yes End answer

4.2. Is it possible for blind of partially sighted children to attend mainstream schools?
Answer Yes End answer

4.2.1. If yes, are there any support services for blind and partially sighted children?

Provision of books in Braille. Answer Yes End answer
Provision of Braille writing devices. Answer Yes End answer
Provision of adapted electronic devices. Answer Yes End answer
Support by specially trained teachers. Answer Yes  End answer
Other (please explain).
Don’t know.



4.3. Can blind or partially sighted students at university benefit from some form of financial aid to purchase an adapted computer?
Answer Yes End answer


4.4. With regard to education in general, what kind of suggestions for improvement do you have?
Answer There are shortcomings regarding mainstream schools in terms of providing material, school books and examination papers in accessible formats and on time at the beginning of the school year. Teachers in mainstream schools often do not know braille. Classroom assistants sometimes are not aware of the special education needs of blind pupils. Training of classroom assistants should be improved. Regarding the right to choose the type of educational setting, there are strong regional differences. In some regions the right does not exist in practice and school may resist a disabled pupil if the staff thinks they do not have the resources to educate the pupil. End answer
 



5. REHABILITATION CENTRES FOR BLIND AND PARTIALLY SIGHTED PEOPLE


5.1. Does your country have any rehabilitation centre for blind or partially sighted people?
Answer Yes End answer 


5.2. Concerning rehabilitation centres, what suggestions for improvement do you have?
Increase the number of centres.
Improve existing centres. Answer Yes   End answer
Increase the capacity of the centre.
Improve the training of staff (auxiliary nursing staff, special education teacher …)
Modernise the methods of rehabilitation to daily life.
Modernise professional training.
Answer Other (explanation) Provide more client driven training.  End answer
Don’t know.


5.3. Have you noted any progress in these areas?
Answer  Don’t know End answer


5.3.1. If no, did you notice a decline in the quality of the rehabilitation measures for blind and partially sighted people?
Answer  Yes,  Funding for vocational rehabilitation measures have been cut with the effect that the length of rehabilitation is shortened. Quality in rehabilitation training is declining. End answer

 

6/ VOCATIONAL TRAINING


6.1. Does your country have a specialized vocational training centre for employed or unemployed blind and partially sighted people?
Answer Yes End answer

6.2. Can blind or partially sighted employed or unemployed people attend mainstream vocational training centres?
Answer Yes, At the vocational training centre for masseurs and physiotherapists in Mainz, blind students attend the same classes as their sighted peers. End answer

6.3. If yes, are there any support services for the blind and partially sighted?
Provision of books in Braille.
Provision of Braille writing devices. Answer Yes End answer
Provision of adapted electronic devices. Answer Yes End answer
Support by specially trained teachers.
Other (please explain).
Don’t know.

6.4. Have these measures been adopted since your country’s accession to the EU or did they exist before?
Answer Old End answer

6.5. With regard to vocational training in general, what kind of suggestions for improvement do you have?
Answer see above. End answer
 


7. ACCESSIBILITY OF ICTs


7.1. Is it possible to obtain support for ICTs for blind people of all age categories:
At school. Answer Yes End answer
At university. Answer Yes End answer
At work. Answer Yes End answer
At home. Answer Yes End answer
What kind of support ? (Please explain)
Answer ICT equipment – computers, access technology, screen readers, scanners – have to be provided for blind students and university students. The workplace has to be adapted to the individual blind worker. It is important to see that the financing comes from different sources. For students ICTs are funded by the national sickness fund, for university students it is social welfare (i.e. the authority which administers the funds); for workers it is the Integration Office. The money they administer comes from a special fund (Equalisation Fund) which is created by a levy private and public employers have to pay who fail to meet their required quota of disabled people among their workforce. At home: Again it is Social Welfare Fund. It is is difficult to get an application through because the need for a computer has to be justified. In many case they provide a reading device, but not a PC with screen reading software. End answer


7.2. Is it possible to obtain support for ICTs for partially sighted people of all age categories ?
At school. Answer Yes End answer
At university. Answer Yes End answer
At work. Answer Yes End answer
At home. Answer Yes End answer
What kind of support ? (Please explain)
Answer See above. Important for private uses (at home) visual aids are provided as a rule but not software and computers End answer




8/ E-GOVERNMENT

 

8.1. How do you evaluate the accessibility of public websites (E-government; documents, forum, services, interactive pages, etc.)
Very good.
Answer Good.   End answer
Medium.
Bad.
Very bad.
(Please explain): Answer There is legislation (BITV) requiring that public websites have to be accessible. Federal Government departments and agencies, local governments, public authorities at various levels started to transpose the BITV regulation. In many cases the websites are good in terns of accessibility in others not satisfactory. In Germany the BIK project where DBSV is one of the partners evaluates websites and provides advice how websites could be made more accessible. In its recent report they conclude that good progress has been achieved, but that there is still a lot to be done. There no or hardly any interactive web pages which are accessible End answer


8.2. Is your government doing anything to make E-government websites accessible to blind and partially sighted people?
Answer Yes End answer
 


9/ EU INFLUENCE


9. Do you think that the EU has had a positive influence on the situation of blind and partially sighted people in your country ?
Answer Yes End answer
(Please explain): Answer There are many examples where we have legislation in Germany which are nothing else but EU directives and regulations transposed into the national legislation (bus directive, labelling of medicinal products, TV without frontier, the Euro. End answer

 


10/ Finally, do you have any expectation with regard to your country’s belonging to the EU?


10. Do you have expectations with regard to:
Employment. Answer Yes End answer
Education.
Vocational training.
Rehabilitation centres.
Transport / mobility.  Answer Yes End answer
Accessibility of buildings and traffic lanes. Answer Yes End answer
Access to information (accessibility of ICTs) Answer Yes End answer
Financial support.
Gender equality.  Answer Yes End answer
 

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