Joint open letter on the Web Accessibility Directive

Everyone has the right to access information. This is written in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Everyone should have access to online public services. The European Union is working on a legislation on the accessibility of the web. This legislation is called the Web Accessibility Directive. This directive needs to be improved. Inclusion Europe and 19 other organisations wrote a letter to EU governments. In this letter, they ask them to improve the Web Accessibility Directive to make sure that everyone can benefit from the information and services available online.

Today, Inclusion Europe and 19 other European NGOs publish a joint open letter to publicly raise our concerns to EU Ministers in charge of Digital Affairs on the current proposals regarding the Web Accessibility Directive.

The proposed exemptions could deny millions of persons with disabilities and older citizens equal access to the digital world, exclude them from full participation in society and create unacceptable digital barriers to employment.

We call on the EU member states to adopt a meaningful Web Directive to ensure that the 80 million persons with disabilities, and the 150 million older people, who live in the European Union have equal access to the Digital Single Market and the online public services provided to citizens in the EU.

Please click here to read the open letter.