From a research made by "Eurobarometre" in 2001, it's evaluated that 10% of European people,
that is 37 million in EU and 80 in Greater Europe, are disable.
It's hard to give the exact number of disabled people who lives around Europe: 6 people out of ten declare to
know a disabled or have friends that know disabled people, and 1 out of 4 have a disabled person in their family.
More than 5% of UE people consider theirselves disabled, but 1 interviewee out of 4 think that 20% of
Europeans are in this situation.
57% of Europeans consider theirselves informed about handicaps: physical disabilities, linked to diseases,
and sensorial disabilities(blindness and deafness) are widely known, just 31% of people are informed about
mental and physical disabilities.
More than 3/4 of European are aware about accessibility difficults concerning building, public trasportations,
schools and structures.
For 2 European out of 3,are local authority who improve life conditions of disable people before goveraments,
companies and associations.
The main part of European people think that barriers must be eliminated and social integration of disable
people must be increased.
From 1997 thanks to associations activities it's been started the long road to improvement of life
conditions of disabled people:
- an increasing number of european cities offer public transportation accessible to disabled people
improving their ability to move
- employers must apply employment procedures for disabled and give office accessible
- discrimination at work can be followed by a legal action
- web sites accessible are increasing
- new elevators are disigned with accessibility standards
- technology for comunication and information (mobile phones, PC and sotwares) are accessible to blind
people
- euro is the most accessible currency in Europe
- medicines and drugs have packaging and sheets written in Braille
- people with disabilities must be assisted in airports and during flights
- European Year of People with Disabilities - celebrated in 2003 - stimulated a new awareness about
disability. During that year many Countries wrote new laws to improve accessibility
- in calls for tenders, authority must guarantee that the projects have the necessary accessibilities
requirements
- 35 % of European funds are assigned to projects who respects non discrimination and accessibility
principles
- the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted by the General Assemnly of UN
in December 2006 it's the first international legal instrument in EU and its Member States.
There's a long way to go:
- a lots of disabled students are unable to study at college
- most of the children with disability don't have the same access to instruction
- a disabled person's income is formed mostly by statal benefits, and often it's lower than other people's one
- the unemployment rate for disabled people is double than other people
- disabled people live often is an unaccessible enviroment
- among people with disabilities, 1 out of 2 never performed recreational and cultural activities, never played
sports and went to theatres, movies, concerts or libraries.
- social isolationa and prejudice still exist
- more than 200.000 disabled people are forced to live in close structure, without the possibility to take
decision for their own life and deprived of their human rights
- free circulation of people with disabilities across EU is just an illusion because there are a lot of
hurdles that prevent them to leave their homeplace
