Includ-ed, red europea de educación inclusiva

As part of international events to recognise issues facing persons with disabilities, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities is celebrated on 3rd December since 1992. Worldwide around 1 billion people, about 15% of the world’s population, live with some form of disability. The International Day of Persons with Disabilities aims to promote an understanding of people with disability and encourage support for their dignity, rights and well-being.

For the 20th edition of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the ONU chose the theme “Removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all”. Persons with disabilities, “the world’s largest minority”, often face barriers to participation in all aspects of society. Barriers can take a variety of forms, including those relating to the physical environment or to information and communications technology (ICT), or those resulting from legislation or policy, or from societal attitudes or discrimination. The result is that persons with disabilities do not have equal access to society or services, including education, employment, health care, transportation, political participation or justice.

Evidence and experience shows that when barriers to their inclusion are removed and persons with disabilities are empowered to participate fully in societal life, their entire community benefits, so the United Nations. Barriers faced by persons with disabilities are, therefore, a detriment to society as a whole, and accessibility is necessary to achieve progress and development for all.

The commemoration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities in 2012 provides an opportunity to address this exclusion by focusing on promoting accessibility and removing all types of barriers in society.

The European Union celebrates the European Day for People with Disabilities by announcing the winners of the 3rd “Access City Award 2012” (www.accesscityaward.eu) – an innovative competition between European cities to promote accessibility in the urban environment for people with disabilities. Previous winners include Salzburg in Austria and Avila in Spain.

Furthermore, the European Commission released a survey ahead of the European Day for People with Disabilities showing that Europeans strongly believe that people with disabilities should be able to participate fully in society. Among those asked, 97% said that people with disabilities should be able to go to school, get a job or access shops like anyone else. 7 in 10 respondents say better accessibility of goods and services would very much improve the lives of disabled people, the elderly and others, such as parents with young children. 84% believe more accessible goods and services would also create more opportunities for industry.

Making Europe more accessible to those with a disability is a key part of the EU’s overall disability strategy. The European Commission is currently preparing proposals for a European Accessibility Act set to come out in 2013. Today’s survey finds that 86% of Europeans believe similar accessibility solutions across Europe would enable disabled people to travel, study and work in another EU country and 78% think common rules would make it easier for companies to operate in the EU’s Single Market.

"Everyone in Europe has a right to participate fully in society and Europeans very clearly share this view," said Vice-President Reding, the EU’s Justice Commissioner. "Making life accessible for everyone is at the heart of our strategy for a barrier-free Europe which is why I intend to come forward with a proposal to break down barriers for the disabled with a European Accessibility Act in 2013."

For more information on the Eurobarometer survey – Attitudes to Accessibility in the EU: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/flash_arch_360_345_en.htm