My Mum who worked with kids with Down-syndrome used to say that you can judge how civilised a society is by watching how many people with disabilities are on the streets. Now, please look up and see whether your office has easy access for wheelchairs or baby strollers for that matter; or try to think back to the last time you heard the special beeping sound in a crosswalk that is supposed to give the green light to people who have vision impairments.
The European Union has come a long way from only being an economic cooperation. But when it comes to social inclusion of people with disabilities the member states are still not on the same page with their policies. In 1997 the very first anti-discriminatory provisions were included in the Treaty of Amsterdam; and the European Convention, signed in 2007, ratified in 2010, set the minimum standards for rights for people with disabilities. Currently, the member states have primary responsibility and competence for policies on social inclusion, employment and education. This means that the EU and its institutions or agencies are there to assist, monitor, and audit the member states’ actions and legislations but member states design and finance their own national disability policies. Social protection benefits spending is the lowest in Malta, and highest in Denmark 0.6% and 5% respectively.
One quarter of the EU citizens, about 87 million people, have severe or less severe disability, cites the European Court of Auditors special report published in 2023. According to Figure 1. the disabilities impose limitations on daily activities, and based on all the prognosis of the European ageing societies the numbers and limitations will continue to rise. Figure 1 numbers were based on self-declaration, and it is obvious that self-declaration can be complicated: is it possible that the population of Latvia has twice as many disabilities than Malta? And do the state finances– see the examples above with regards to Malta and Denmark – and therefore the states’ priorities have anything to do with how a person with disability sees their environment and chances in their everyday lives?
When it comes to official data the question becomes more challenging. Why is that – one might ask. Because the member states’ decisions about disability statuses vary. It can even vary within a country as the example of the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden show. If a person living with disability moves to a different municipality in these decentralised countries, they must reapply for a disability status, and they might not be eligible for the same benefits or equipment.
The report monitors whether the “2021-2030 EU Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” that outlined initiatives and actions regarding accessibility, citizens’ rights, quality of life, equal access and non-discrimination and the promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities is on the way to be successful. Reading through the report we learn that although this decade is supposed to give us the mutual recognition process by introducing a European Disability Card, we are not there yet. The report concludes that in recent years unfortunately there is no significant improvement in the EU’s disability employment gap and the risk of poverty with people with disabilities has not diminished at all. There is no sufficient EU-wide data other than the mentioned self-declaration and there is no common indicator measuring and auditing how EU funds and policies directly impacted the lives of people living with disabilities.
Overall, the report paints a grim picture of the ordinary life and prospects of the 87 million people living with disabilities. We don’t even know the exact number of our fellow citizens who have limitations in their everyday lives due to their disabilities. However, leaving close to a hundred million people - partly or totally - out of a European workplace that needs more labourforce is a gigantesque missed business opportunity. Moreover, creating a more integrated approach would also reduce mental health issues, beneficial for the individual as well as for the whole society. “Integration” does not have to be something immensely expensive: a more emphatic mindset is often enough. The good news is solutions can be as easy as opening a double-sided door, an investment in ramps or shuttle-buses. We Are Open offers dialogues and workshops to companies and at the end of these sessions the tailor-made results only need implementations.
The EU came a long way from introducing anti-discriminatory provisions in 1997 but it has been almost three decades, and we are still debating terminology and data, and we don’t see many people with disabilities in the streets, let alone in our working lives. It is now up to us individuals and companies to change the situation.
Ágnes Holtzer
*Source:
https://www.eca.europa.eu/ECAPublications/SR-2023-20/SR-2023-20_EN.pdf
