The European Disability Action Plan and e-Accessibility standardisation Martina Sindelar Principal Administrator Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry Unit ICT for Competitiveness and Innovation martina.sindelar@ec.europa.eu Inmaculada Placencia Porrero Deputy Head of Unit Directorate General Employment, Social affairs and equal opportunities Unit Integration of People with Disabilities Inmaculada.placencia-porrero@ec.europa.eu 1

KEY FIGURES 44.6 MILLION in Europe – one in six – persons aged between 16 and 64 report a long standing health problem or disability 16% of the overall EU working age population 63% OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ARE OLDER THAN 45. Nearly 30% of people in the age group 55-64 report a disability. The incidence of disability will increase as the EU population gets older. 50% OF DISABLED PERSONS ARE EMPLOYED COMPARED TO 68% OF NON DISABLED Only 15.9% of working disabled persons are provided with some assistance to work. At the same time, 43.7% of respondents believe they could work if they were given adequate assistance. 2

Euro barometer "Discrimination in the European Union" 2007 on disability matters Almost 90% of the population in Europe see the need to increase the participation of people with disabilities in society and strengthen action to combat discrimination in employment 91% of respondent agree to spend more money in eliminating physical barriers for people with disabilities This overwhelming support is particular important considering the relation between disability and ageing. The support to expending more money on accessibility supports, in particular the work on accessibility requirements in public procurement

INCLUDING ALL PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES Why a DISABILITY STRATEGY AT EU LEVEL? Disability policies are essentially the responsibility of the Member States. However, European Community policies and actions impact in many ways on situation of people with disabilities. Hence, there is a need to (1) reinforce the disability dimension in all relevant EU policies and actions and to (2) establish a sustainable and operational approach to disability in the EU.

…. from Equal Rights to Equal Opportunities…. ....from 2003 to 2010... Disability is a right issue and not a matter of discretion: this approach is at the core of the UN Convention of the rights of People with Disabilities, to which the European Community is a signatory People with disabilities have the same rights as non disabled persons and should have access to them in practice: enabling people with disabilities to enjoy their rights is at the centre of the EU actions Requires adequate policy and actions defined together with people with disabilities themselves : mainstreaming is a crucial methodology allowing to take into account the needs of people with disabilities at all stages of policy developments

Four pillars EU ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LEGISLATION AND MEASURES: Providing access to individual rights (Directive 2000/78/EC, Anti- Discrimination Programme) MAINSTREAMING OF DISABILITY ISSUES : Mainstreaming in order to facilitate active inclusion of disabled people ACCESSIBILITY : Elimination of obstacles preventing disabled people from exercising their abilities MOBILISING STAKEHOLDERS THROUGH DIALOGUE : with (1) Member States, (2) people with disabilities, (3) civil society representatives and (4) other stakeholders

DISABILITY ACTION PLAN SET-UP MONITORING & FOLLOW-UP THROUGH INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK Disability High Level Group meetings, comprising MS and third sector representatives. Disability Inter-Service Group meetings, comprising civil servants from different directorates general. Dialogue with the EP, monitoring of Parliamentary Inter-Service group activities Dialogue with CoR and EESC THROUGH OTHER MEANS Dialogue with Social Partners and other relevant stakeholders Establishment of the Action Plan scoreboard allowing continual monitoring of the implementation process Through eventual meetings of MS disability ministers Academic network of disability experts

European policy priorities Priority areas Improve access and retention of employment Lifelong learning Using the potential of new technologies Accessibility in public procurement and to the public built environment Support of international activities (UN Convention, revision of section 508 of US Antidiscrimination Act, EU-US ICT standardisation dialogue on e-accessibility)

2007 Commission Communication on the situation of people with disabilities The Communication highlights that disability is a human rights and not a social discretional matter : analyses developments in the situation of disabled people, reports on the achievements of the second phase of the Commission Disability Action Plan (2006- 2007), defines the priorities for the third phase of the Action Plan (2008-2009) in line with the Commission strategic objectives on equal opportunities for disabled persons

2007 Commission Communication on the situation of people with disabilities Data analysis confirms: still considerable gaps between people with disabilities and people without disabilities, these gaps are even more visible by multiple discrimination, i.g. women with disabilities. These differences in equality pose several challenges in the context of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which the European Community and all Member States except one signed earlier this year In this respect, the focus for the third phase (2008-2009) of the Disability Action Plan

2007 Commission Communication on the situation of people with disabilities The Communication identifies 2 areas with 5 priorities: Actions for inclusive participation through accessibility: Fostering accessibility of the labour market Boosting accessibility of goods, services and infrastructures, addressing transport ICT and built environment. Consolidating the Commission’s analytical capacity to support accessibility Actions towards full enjoyment of fundamental rights: Facilitating the implementation of the UN Convention Complementing the Community legislative framework of protection against discrimination

Person . . . . Home/Work . . . Community . . . Society eAccessibility Barrier free technologies Design-for-All Intelligent systems for social inclusion Intelligent systems for Independent living Empowering technologies Assistive Technology - intelligent interfaces Person . . . . Home/Work . . . Community . . . Society

Accessibility and Public procurement: the market Revised public procurement Directives PP 16% EU gross domestic product 1500 Billion Euros ICT sector 6% EU GDP ( ICT 594 billion Euro) European public sector ICT spending of European public sector is 0,8 % of GDP =76billion Euro Public procurement comprises about 40% of the total production value in construction The European construction market is about 10% of GDP and 7% of the workforce. The residential sector represents 46% of the total EU production, the non-residential sector 31% and infrastructure 23%. Modernisation of existing buildings and infrastructure versus new construction 40% of the entire construction sector production has the public hand as a customer, mostly outside the residential housing segment

Public Procurement Directives The preambles to the revised Directives (paragraph 29 of Directive 2004/18/EC and paragraph 42 of Directive 2004/17/EC) now state that: “Contracting authorities should, whenever possible, lay down technical specifications so as to take into account accessibility criteria for people with disabilities or design for all users.” In addition, the specific Articles on technical specifications (Article 23, Paragraph 1 of Directive 2004/18/EC and Article 34, Paragraph 1 of Directive 2004/17/EC) now state that: “Whenever possible [these] technical specifications should be defined so as to take into account accessibility criteria for people with disabilities or design for all users.” Award phase…(art 53) the criteria on which the contracting authorities shall base the award of public contracts shall either: (a) when the awards is made to the tender most economically advantageous from the point of view of the contracting authority, various criteria linked to the subject matter of the public contract in question, for example quality, price, technical merit, aesthetic and functional characteristics, environmental characteristics,…. (b) the lowest price

Mandate 376 on European requirements for the public purchase of ICT goods and services Addressed to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI Phase I: Inventory Inventory of existing European and international functional requirements and standards/technical specifications (ETSI) Analysis on testing and conformity assessment (CEN/CENELEC) Phase II: Standardisation Activities European standard (EN) Technical report (TR) and support guidelines On line freely accessible toolkit

Mandate 420 on Accessibility of the Built Environment Addressed to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI Standards for addressing accessibility of the built environment in the context of public procurement. Covering: Public buildings, public places, parkings, roads, schools, hospitals, sport facilities, etc Transport facilities such as airports, train/coach stations, ports, etc Inventory of functional requirements and technical specifications Addressing the wide spectrum of people with different impairments of all ages and age-related limitations In coordination with Mandate M 376 (Accessibility issues in ICT products and services for public procurement) Standardisation has evolved to a meeting point between Cooperating private interests Interoperability for innovation and market development Public policy Market regulation Implementation of the Single Market

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

For further information … On European accessibility strategy http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/disability/index_en.html projects financed in RTD in previous frame work programmes http://www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_f/einclusion/previous-research.htm On the preparatory work for eInclusion research for Frame work programme 7 http://www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_f/einclusion/future.htm On eInclusion and eAccessibility policies http://europa.eu.int/information_society/soccul/eincl/index_en.htm http://europa.eu.int/information_society/policy/accessibility/index_en.htm Inmaculada.placencia-porrero@ec.europa.eu