Click here for the easy-to-read version
Alongside 19 other organisations, Inclusion Europe today published an Open Letter on the European Accessibility Act. We want member states to greatly improve the Act before 2 October, when the next round of negotiations will start. We need a strong Accessibility Act, and we want to see an agreement before the next European Day of Persons with Disabilities.
We especially call on all Member States that are opposed to improvements to overcome their objections. They need to guarantee strong provisions that will improve lives.
Read the letter in full.
Inclusion Europe has made it clear on several occasions how important the act is to make life easier for people with intellectual disabilities. In addition to publishing our own position paper reacting to the European Commission’s first proposal, we also contributed to the European Disability Forum’s (EDF) official response to the legislative proposal. We joined other disability rights organisations for demonstrations in front of the European Parliament and to gather signatures to ask EU institutions to move forward with the Act. Our easy-to-read editor Soufiane El Amrani participated in a video of EDF summarizing the demands of people with disabilities.
The signatories of the letter include:
ANEC – The European consumer voice in standardisation
ARFIE – Association for Research and Training on Integration in Europe
CP-ECA – Cerebral Palsy – European Communities Association
EAMDA – European Alliance of Neuromuscular Disorders Associations
EASPD – European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities
EBU – European Blind Union
ECCE – European Cooperation in anthroposophical Curative Education and Social Therapy
EDA – European Dyslexia Association
EFHOH – European Federation of Hard of Hearing People
ENIL – European Network on Independent Living
ENUSP – European Network of (ex)-Users and survivors of psychiatry
EUD – European Union of the Deaf
EURO-CIU – European Association of Cochlear Implant Users
IFSBH – International Federation for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus
MHE – Mental Health Europe
Easy-to-read version
Click on a word which is in bold to read what it means.
“Each European member state should work
to make the Accessibility Act better!”
19 organisations and Inclusion Europe
have written a letter about the Accessibility Act.
They have written it
to the member states of the European Union.
The member states of the European Union
must make the Accessibility Act better.
It is up to each member state to do this.
They should make it better
before the start of the next round of talks.
We think they should agree on the new Accessibility Act
before the next European Day of Persons with Disabilities.
There are some European countries that do not want
to work on the Accessibility Act to make it better.
Inclusion Europe asks the leaders of these countries
to change their minds.
They should join the others
and try to make the Accessibility Act better.
The Accessibility Act is a very important document
that makes life easier for people with intellectual disabilities.
Inclusion Europe knows this.
We have done many things
to ask people working on the Accessibility Act
to make it better.
We have also done many things
to ask people working on the Accessibility Act
to move forward with it.
We took action in many different ways:
- We wrote a document on the Accessibility Act.
In the document,
we wrote about how the Accessibility Act
can become better. - We worked together with the European Disability Forum
when they wrote a text about the Accessibility Act. - We demonstrated in front of the European Parliament
for a better Accessibility Act. - We tried to get signatures of people who also think
the Accessibility Act should become better. - Our easy-to-read editor Soufiane took part in a video
about the Accessibility Act.
