European Blind Union
Regional Report to the WBU General Assembly18 - 25 August, 2016Orlando, USA
General Assembly
In meeting the requirements of the EBU constitution, the 9th General Assembly, in October 2011, had adopted the EBU strategic plan for
the work period 2011 to 2015, presented by the outgoing board, and had agreed on a list of topics, that, concretized in the respective resolutions was sent to the newly elected Board for consideration during its work period.
Following the debate at the General Assembly and the respective resolution, after intensive discussions, the Board adjusted the structure of commissions, steering groups, and networks.
Meanwhile, the 10th EBU General Assembly, in October 2015, adopted
a recommendation by the board to replace the commission structure with a structure of project orientated consortiums of national members and expert groups.
In the past work period the total number of places for any function within EBU was 118. Of these 84 (71%) were occupied by men and 34 (29 %) by women. Of the 93 for whom this information was given 59 (63,5%) were blind, 25 (27%) were partially sighted, 4 (4,3%) were deafblind and 5 (5,4%) were sighted. In terms of gender there is a slight change towards more equality while the distribution in terms of status of visual impaired still has declined.
Membership of the European Blind Union is globally stable. However,
in early 2014 the Latvian Society of the Blind decided to discontinue its membership of EBU for financial reasons. Also during 2014 the Belgian Confederation for the Blind and Partially Sighted, our member in Belgium was dissolved. As a result of this we are pleased to welcome the new Belgian national member, Ligue Braille, based in Brussels.
Communication and Public Relations
Throughout this working period, too, EBU produced further Action Sheets, for example, on the topics of Low Vision, Shared Spaces, and Access to e-banking and related services.
In order to help its members in their own communication activities and thus continue to raise the profile of EBU at national level EBU organised an on-line webinar training session on improving media relations.
As part of our newsletter, we published EU updates and features, among them a focus on public procurement where EBU won a longstanding European campaign as the European Parliament approved the final draft of a new Directive on Public Procurement.
During this work period, we have also continuously fed our increasingly popular Facebook page with new information on our projects and campaigns, also sharing and relaying our members’ activities and posts. The page’s look was refreshed with a new banner, designed to illustrate the diversity of EBU, its members and the millions of active and diverse people we represent.
Throughout the working period, EBU published position papers and responses to EU public consultations, often as part of our campaigns on outstanding political issues.
In 2014, our media relations work was centred for a major part on our Blind Date event in Brussels. This event generated almost thirty articles in the European media. On this occasion, we published the "Access Denied Report". This document and its annexes show how blind and partially sighted people struggle to access everyday goods, services and information and what the EU can do about it.
The EBU Working Areas
Human and Social Rights
With the proactive support of our central office, the legislative database progressed much since 2012.
In fulfilling the respective challenge of our strategic plan, with regard to the UN-CRPD, the network of national champions has been established; 25 countries have now nominated their representative champion.
Two instructive webinars were organized.
Culture and Education
EBU Access to Culture Survey of 2012 mapped the current level of accessibility in Europe of cultural venues and activities.
A project related to this working area was “Bridging the Gap between Museums and Individuals with Visual impairments”, coordinated by
the University of Thessaly in Greece and funded under the Erasmus+ Programme.
At this point, the board is happy to inform, that through the continuous efforts of our French national member the Braille museum at
the birthplace of Louis Braille since 2013 is managed by a fulltime director. This should encourage all national members who gave their support already to maintain this support and all other national members to consider such support for this historic site of blind people’s literacy.
Rehabilitation, Vocational Training and Employment
Amongst other activities, the respective Commission looked at
the difficulties faced by blind and partially sighted people in accessing educational and training programmes to qualify as physiotherapists, supporting the organization of a conference on this topic by the Finnish Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted in June 2014.
In February 2014, a working group on rehabilitation with participants from different commissions and networks met in Paris. This work aims to find a consensus on how minimum standards for rehabilitation should look like.
Road Safety and Access to Transport
The most important work item was supporting the Liaising Commission in lobbying European institutions on the EU Regulation of Sound Level of Motor Vehicles. RSAT members drafted a position paper dealing with
the dangers of silent vehicles, which was used by the Liaising Commission for its lobby work.
Access to Information and Technology
EBU lobbied for accessible and standardised payment terminals, jointly with the European Disability Forum and Age Platform Europe,
while working with financial and technical support from the Dutch Central Bank to devise technical specifications.
We worked with the European Central Bank (ECB) on an accessible mobile application allowing identification of Euro banknotes via
a smartphone.
On the initiative of our national member from Austria, EBU issued
a statement regarding the widely used touch sensitive controls at elevators.
Blind and Partially Sighted Persons with Additional Disabilities
The commission for this working area carried out a survey among EBU member countries. The survey included information regarding
the definition of the population of persons with additional disabilities, statistical information, provisions available to these persons, examples of good practice, but also problems and challenges faced by them, and recommendations.
Deafblind People
The EBU Commission for Deafblind People and its Chairperson were instrumental in reactivating our cooperation with the European Deafblind Union (EDBU) to promote equality and the full participation of deafblind people in society.
The Commission prepared the 7th EBU Conference on Deafblindness which was held from 22-24 May 2013 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
For this conference, EBU presented a paper on “The Impact of
the UN-CRPD on People with Deafblindness and the Present Reality in Europe”. In addition, a forum for deafblind women was held immediately prior to this conference. These events took place in conjunction with
the 3rd EDBU General Assembly.
Work for the Developing Countries
The Development Commission started funding projects through
the African Union of the Blind Solidarity Trust Fund (ASTF).
Three projects, in Kenya, Lesoto, and Gambia, were funded in 2014.
The ASTF Board resolved to support these projects with an overall amount of US$ 15000.
Low Vision
EBU, through its Low Vision Network, produced a brochure which recommends a set of ten minimum standards and recommendations for low vision services in Europe. These ten key elements for adequate low vision support and rehabilitation services were based on good practice in EBU countries.
Blind and Partially Sighted Women
The network, consisting of about sixty women from 25 countries, was to serve as a pool of experts when recruiting members for setting up small working groups for delivering projects and activities.
A number of press releases was produced and distributed on
the occasions of the International Women’s Day with focus on
the empowerment of women and girls with disabilities, the impact of
the current Europe wide economic crisis on women with visual impairment, and on combating violence.
Blind and Partially Sighted Children
This working area was mainly represented through joint efforts of our Children’s network and our Commission on Culture and Education,
in close contact and co-operation with ICEVI Europe.
At the ICEVI-Europe annual conference held in Istanbul, Turkey, from 30 June - 05 July 2013, our Chair of the Children’s Network, Maria Kyriacou, presented a paper on “The First Steps in Life: The Child with a Visual Impairment and the Importance of Early Childhood Intervention”.
Blind and Partially Sighted Youngsters
In June 2013, a youth seminar was organized by the German Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted in collaboration with VIEWS INTERNATIONAL. The seminar dealt with the political participation of visually impaired youths and young adults as well as valuable networking strategies and useful decision making processes within a network.
Elderly Blind and Partially Sighted People
Together with the European Guide Dog Federation (EGDF) and with
the support of AGE Platform Europe, the Elderly Network organised three focus groups, in Tullamore (Ireland), Salzburg (Austria) and Marseille (France).
In 2014 the network suffered the great loss of its coordinator Alan Suttie.
Liaising with the EU
This commission consisting of representatives of the national EBU members in the 28 EU member countries acts as a special link between EBU and the European institutions, i.e. the EU Parliament, Commission, and Council. Consequently, any EBU activity that relates to EU matters, such as campaigning, lobbying, responses to EU papers, etc., always, too, is an activity of EBU as such and of the Liaising Commission.
Both benefit from the commitment of the same persons.
Much of the work was carried out through intensive use of the email list, task sharing, and timely circulation of information.
The Commission has been collaborating with the e-campaigning network which was set up to better lobby and act for successful campaigning also through the use of social media, Twitter included.
Outstanding Campaigns
Right to Read – The Treaty of Marrakesh
Right now, WBU and EBU are still waiting for the ratification of this important treaty by the European Union. The latter has shown no urgency, indeed it has shown reluctance, to do so.
Sadly, there is an ongoing discussion within the EU about the process for ratification, e.g. if the EU has an exclusive competence for the ratification or if a shared competence with the member states has to be observed. By the time of this report, already 21 member states have declared their willingness to admit exclusive competence. However, some member states – among them Germany and Italy – are blocking this process of ratification. EBU has been continuously lobbying the Members of the European Parliament, the Commission, and the Council during specially organized events held in the European Parliament in Brussels, collaborating with the TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD),
by submissions and face-to-face meetings on national level, and through means of public relations.
Accessibility of Public Sector Bodies’ Websites
progress has so far been very limited, although 92% of Members of European Parliament voted for a strong directive on accessible websites in February 2014, extending its scope to private sector websites providing services of general interest (online banking and shopping) and to apps.
Just recently, in a number of high-level meeting in Brussels, EBU has carried on its lobbying with the challenge to include mobile web and
apps in the scope of the EC proposed Directive on the Accessibility of Public Sector Bodies' Websites.
Silent Vehicles
As a result of EBU’s lobby work some improvements on the text of
the draft report could be secured. We made our voice heard in the EU debates on the proposed Regulation on the sound level of motor vehicles, and as one of the partners of the eVADER project, we also provided our specific expertise and advice in the field of visual impairment and road safety.
Meanwhile, national organisation have started campaigns to raise public awareness for the concerns of blind and partially sighted pedestrians.
Co-operation
The collaboration with EDF, the European Disability Forum, is ongoing as we were one of the founder members, together with other disability organisations. EBU is represented in a number of EDF working bodies so that the visual impairment dimension is fully considered.
The Chairman of our Commission for Liaising with the EU is also
the Secretary of EDF.
We also regularly support and join campaigns or projects led by other institutions promoting the rights of blind and partially sighted people. These include the International Council for Education of People With Visual Impairment (ICEVI Europe). A memorandum of understanding was developed to foster our partnership. Finally, of course, as a member of the World Blind Union (WBU), we stand in line with the other regional unions in our joint international work.
EBU also related to the Council of Europe and the European Social Platform.
EBU runs the European strand of the Onkyo World Braille Essay Contest, an international initiative to promote Braille literacy and to encourage the sharing of social and cultural information among blind and visually impaired people.
Arne Husveg Award
We were honored and pleased, on the occasion of EBU’s mid-term meeting of our commissions and networks, to present the EBU Arne-Husveg award to lord Colin Low, for his lifelong outstanding commitment in the European Blind Union.
Economy
Many of the activities outlined have been carried out with the financial support of the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity (Progress) and the Rights, Equality and Citizenship programme (REC). In all our activities we commit ourselves to a most effective and economical usage of all financial means that are at our disposal.
Due to the global economic crisis in previous years, a considerable number of our national members have been increasingly struck by budgetary cuttings.
The Board worked on a new financial structure with a view to securing more funds to maintain and develop the work of EBU.