Dear EBU Members,
As we continue our journey towards fulfilling the objectives of the 2024-2027 EBU Strategic Plan, we want to share some important updates on how our work is progressing. At the heart of our strategy are the structures that enable us to efficiently and inclusively advance the mission of the European Blind Union. These structures play a crucial role in ensuring that our efforts are both impactful and representative of the diverse needs of blind and partially sighted individuals across Europe.
EBU Structures: A Foundation for Success
The EBU’s work is structured through committees, working groups, and forums, each contributing to specific strategic priorities. Our three permanent committees—the Advocacy Committee (AC), Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (DEIC), and Leadership Exchange Committee (LEC)—are key pillars in advancing our work on rights advocacy, inclusive practices, and leadership development.
In addition to these committees, we have a dynamic set of working groups that focus on critical areas such as training, mobility, accessibility, braille, digitalisation, and external communication. These groups, often supported by temporary task forces, offer invaluable opportunities for sharing expertise and developing solutions to challenges faced by blind and partially sighted individuals.
Furthermore, we facilitate five open forums—Women and Gender Issues, Low Vision, Youth, Older Persons, and Members Exchange—that allow individuals at the grassroots level to share experiences and contribute to the broader EBU mission.
For a more detailed overview of the EBU's structures, please visit our dedicated webpage: EBU Structure.
Current Activities: Progress and Priorities
While you may not always be aware of the full range of activities being carried out within these structures, there is a great deal of work underway. Here’s a brief look at some key initiatives:
- Advocacy Committee (AC): The AC, chaired by Francesca Sbianchi and supported by Head of Advocacy and Campaigning Antoine Fobe, continues its advocacy efforts, focusing inter alia on preparing a campaigning on accessible household appliances, ensuring appropriate sound levels for Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems (AVAS) in electric and hybrid vehicles, improving the EU implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty and extending its logic to other areas beyond printed works, and denouncing the “disability benefits trap” that results from incompatibility of such benefits with employment. Regular updates of the continuous advocacy and campaigning activities can be found in the monthly Members Newsletter.
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (DEIC): Chaired by Polona Car, the DEIC is working to draft a Code of Conduct that promotes diversity and inclusion across all EBU structures and activities. This committee ensures that every stakeholder’s voice is heard at the Board level and that all members can participate fully.
- Leadership Exchange Committee (LEC): this committee, overseen by EBU Director Lars Bosselmann, brings together 39 participants from member organisations to share strategies and best practices and ensure cooperation at operational level. The next in-person meeting will take place in Slovenia on 27–28 September 2025.
- Braille Working Group: chaired by Reiner Delgado and funded through CERV as well as DBSV/EBU resources, is an active, self-reliant team of 38 people with a 13‑member steering committee continuing to guide four annual plenaries and one in‑person gathering. Two headline work‑streams were endorsed: (1) promoting and improving braille learning for children, and (2) boosting effective braille‑display training, resources and advocacy, including sharing multilingual materials on LivingBraille.eu and liaising with manufacturers. The group will also refine its structure, recruit task‑force volunteers (including a rotating minute‑taker), and explore affordable in‑person meeting options such as the June 2025 Tactile Reading Conference in Amsterdam.
- External Communication Working Group: chaired by Barbara Martin and coordinated by Communication Officer Nacho Lopez, this small group of expert is working on discussing the current state of communication tools for organisations in the area of blindness and partial sight and how they can be optimised through those different channels. This WG also serves as a forum to talk about upcoming initiatives, such as the “#a11y Techies segment of interviews on accessible technological solutions for visually impaired people. The launch is expected to take place by mid-2025. This structure welcomes discussions about any communications initiative, whether if it’s from EBU or any of its members. At the same time, the Group’s coordinator acts as its representative in the production of CERV-25 funded activities.
- Youth Forum: coordinated by Elisabeth Egel, has 28 participants under 35 and offers a workshop opportunity at the ICC Camp, an annual event for blind and visually impaired youth aged 16 to 21. This year, the camp will be held from August 5-14 at the University of Aveiro in Portugal, with support from the EBU. Additionally, the youth forum may organise a webinar on international student mobility, building on discussions from the 2023 EBU Annual Conference.
- Older Persons Forum: With 20 participants, this forum coordinated by Hubert Perfler is focused on training seniors on low-tech solutions like smartphones and accessibility features.
- Members Exchange Forum (37 participant) is a platform, with no formal coordinator, facilitating freeform exchanges among blind and partially sighted individuals across Europe. It focuses on sharing information, experiences, and fostering networking opportunities at the grassroots level. The forum provides a space for members to connect and support each other in their communities. Feel free to encourage participations from colleagues, end users and any individual concerned with sight loss in your country.
- Ebupay TaskForce, coordinated by Jakob Rosin, involving 18 participants is focused on accessible payment systems. It will represent EBU at a conference within AccessibleEU, organised jointly with Fundaciόn ONCE, scheduled for July 1st.
- Sports Accessibility TaskForce, coordinated Peter Van Bleijswijk involves 7 participants who have drafted a work plan, and are currently focusing on exchanging knowledge and various organisations’ take on leisure, sports and physical activity.
Call for Leadership: Your Engagement Matters
While we have seen strong participation in our activities, EBU continues to face challenges in filling leadership positions within its structures. We encourage you to nominate individuals from your organisation who are passionate about shaping our collective future. Volunteering in a leadership role offers both personal rewards and the opportunity to make a meaningful difference for the wider community.
As per the ToRs, here are the roles definitions of Working Groups Chairs and Forums Coordinators:
Each Working Group has a Chair, i.e. a representative from a member organisation participating in this Working Group. The Chair has a mandate of max. 4 years (following the life cycle of the Strategic Plan) that can be renewed once. The Chair is a visually impaired person. The Chair informs the Board on a regular basis, at least before each Board meeting, about the developments in and the results of the Working Group.
Each Forum has a Coordinator, chosen internally by its membership (members can propose their candidature for coordinator) and this for a period of 4 years (following the life cycle of the Strategic Plan of EBU). The basis are all subscribers to the dedicated discussion lists. An electronic voting procedure will be developed and installed to this end. The Coordinator of each Target Group Forum informs the DEIC on a regular basis, at least before every Board meeting about the developments in and the results of the Forum. The Coordinator of Target Group Forums is a visually impaired person.
Kindly send any new nominations to membership@euroblind.org
The way forward for Working Groups and forums
Over the last few months various kick-off meetings were held and facilitated by board and staff members. Unfortunately, most working groups still don't have a dedicated chair nor a steering task force. The next steps for the following working groups will therefore be to identify the participants’ expertise, draft a small but structured work‑plan (at least one activity) and choose smaller volunteer teams for each task. The following orientations are mere suggestions drawing from discussions in kick‑off meetings and subsequent exchanges, as well as funded projects opportunities.
The Training WG with 35 participants, we hope to gather small task forces to produce two core outputs:
(1) We would like to reissue here our call for volunteers to help develop a good practice brochure on in-work support, to be produced in English and translated into five other European languages. The aim is to empower blind and partially sighted individuals in their job search and to raise awareness among employers about the benefits of hiring BPS employees.
(2) a 2‑minute awareness‑raising video—also in six languages and fully audio‑described—funded by a €2 000 subcontract.
The Mobility WG, comprising 42 participants, could organise online expert webinars—such as those on silent cars and shared spaces—to explore emerging mobility issues and gather survey data for process improvement. It could also contribute to advocacy campaigns and build a knowledge‑sharing platform collecting accessible‑mobility resources. To widen impact, the group could also maintain an active social‑media presence that amplifies mobility concerns (for instance under the banner “AVAS Advocacy.”)
The Accessibility WG, (50 participants): we are currently looking for volunteers to deliver a series of training sessions for visually impaired users on how to provide constructive feedback on website accessibility. The goal is to design and conduct three online sessions, with €1500 in CERV funding allocated to cover trainers’ fees. The WG could form additional task forces to draft a position paper on inclusive standardisation, to tackle inaccessible digital interfaces and to advocate for making standardisation processes themselves accessible. The group could also push for mobility and built‑environment improvements through harmonised, accessibility‑centred standards.
The Digitalisation WG (41 participants) could launch a task‑force for sending AI‑in‑accessibility survey, expert webinars, and position papers on website overlays’ limits plus ICT guidelines. As a forthcoming activity the US‑based Blind Institute of Technology offers a free, fully online Salesforce‑apps training for blind and partially sighted people, pairing graduates with relevant jobs. CEO Mike Hess proposes a brief EBU webinar to present the program and answer questions ahead of an EU‑friendly course launch.
The Women and Gender Issues Forum, (currently 44 participants), could organise one meeting per semester, focusing on specific themes. Implementing regular "Tea Talks" webinars would allow for diverse formats and times to cover critical topics such as violence against women with disabilities, reproductive health, and women's leadership in EBU organisations. These webinars would be informed by surveys and existing research, featuring expert insights on the issues.
Low Vision Forum, (currently 42 participants) could implement regular, online meetings, update, translate and continue disseminating the dedicated information and toolkit.
Get Involved and Make a Difference
To boost the dynamics of EBU working structures, we strongly encourage EBU members to actively participate in the working groups and forums. Indeed, you can still nominate additional colleagues to working groups (up to 5 per organisation) and extend forum invitations to Forums at the grassroots level.
By joining these efforts, we can ensure that our work reflects the diverse perspectives and needs of the blind and partially sighted community across Europe.
Together, we are making significant strides towards a more inclusive and accessible future. Let’s continue to collaborate and support each other in this journey.
For more information or to submit nominations, please contact us at: membership@euroblind.org.
Thank you for your ongoing commitment and support.
Warm regards, The EBU Team.