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Last week we demonstrated with many of our members in front of the European Parliament, calling on Parliamentarians to promote a strong and effective European Accessibility Act.

Millions of people in Europe are still excluded from using basic products and services that are taken for granted for other people. Due to lack of accessibility, withdrawing money from a cash machine, entering a bank or any public building, using the metro, issuing a ticket, using a computer, calling a friend, watching TV, staying in a hotel, using a washing machine, are impossible for many people, including persons with disabilities and older people.

The European Parliament is currently discussing the European Commission’s proposal for the European Accessibility Act. This is a proposal for a law that could make several products and services in the European Union accessible for all citizens including 80 million persons with disabilities and 190 million people aged 50 and older. The Accessibility Act provides the opportunity to harmonise the accessibility obligations and requirements for products and services within the European Union’s internal market, reducing barriers and reducing costs for persons with disabilities, older people and all citizens.

The demonstration took place because of our deep concern about the recently published draft report of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO Committee), which is the responsible Committee for the European Accessibility Act in the European Parliament. The Committee’s report is watering down the proposal for the Act to such an extent that fundamentally important parts of the Act may be lost. To know more, you can read our press release.

We hope that many Members of the European Parliament will play their role as the front runner for the rights of their citizens, as they did on other occasions.

At the same time we are happy to acknowledge that there are positive practices of how companies cooperate with users’ associations to ensure the accessibility of their products or services.

It is the case of the “Subtitle time machine project” that was launched in 2016 by BBC, a national public service broadcaster within the United Kingdom, and presented to us by our member the European Disability Forum. This project project is specifically targeted towards people in need of live subtitling, in particular deaf and hard of hearing people. Its aim is to improve the quality of the subtitling service in live programming to ensure that all viewers can fully enjoy their favourite programmes, by reducing the delays in live subtitling for television.

Considering the BBC’s public remit and its duty to always meet the needs and expectations of its audience, the project aims to ensure that all viewers are treated equally and that the way programmes are presented does not cause discrimination. Participation of users has been an integral part of the development of this new service. The idea of the project was based on feedback from viewers who regularly use subtitles. You can read more about this project and other case studies of investment in services on our web site.