Περιγραφή θέματος

  • General overview regarding the rights of VIPs in Europe

    • The EU promotes the active inclusion and full participation of disabled people in society, in line with the EU human rights approach to disability issues. Disability is a rights issue and not a matter of discretion. This approach is also at the core of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), to which the EU is a party http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1137

      The European Commission's European Disability Strategy 2010-2020, adopted in 2010, builds on the UNCRPD.  A Progress Report presenting the achievements, up to 2016, on the implementation of the Strategy has been published in February 2017. It lists some tangible successes and describes the implementation of the UNCRPD by the EU, including within the EU institutions. It also confirms the need for a European Strategy that will continue to deliver on its objectives, taking into account the UN Concluding Observations.

      The objectives of the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 are pursued by actions in eight priority areas:

      1. Accessibility: make goods and services accessible to people with disabilities and promote the market of assistive devices.

      2. Participation: ensure that people with disabilities enjoy all benefits of EU citizenship; remove barriers to equal participation in public life and leisure activities; promote the provision of quality community-based services.

      3. Equality: combat discrimination based on disability and promote equal opportunities.

      4. Employment: raise significantly the share of persons with disabilities working in the open labour market. They represent one-sixth of the EU's overall working-age population, but their employment rate is comparatively low.

      5. Education and training: promote inclusive education and lifelong learning for students and pupils with disabilities. Equal access to quality education and lifelong learning enable disabled people to participate fully in society and improve their quality of life. The European Commission has launched several educational initiatives for disabled people. These include the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education as well as a specific study group on disability and lifelong learning.

      6. Social protection: promote decent living conditions, combat poverty and social exclusion.

      7. Health: promote equal access to health services and related facilities.

      8. External action: promote the rights of people with disabilities in the EU enlargement and international development programmes.

      The Commission also supports the Academic Network of European Disability experts (ANED), which provides the Commission with analysis of national situations, policies and data. ANED also manages the DOTCOM Online Tool that provides an overview of the key instruments in the Member States and in the EU needed for the implementation of the UNCRPD. The creation of the Tool was one of the actions foreseen in the List of Actions (2010-2015) accompanying the European Disability Strategy. Published in May 2012, the DOTCOM Tool is being updated every year.

  • Economic activity of population with visual impairments in Europe

    • The statistics show that blind and partially sighted are the disability group with the lowest employment rate but the biggest obstacle for visually impaired jobseekers is not their disability, experts say https://www.euractiv.com/section/health-consumers/news/workplace-prejudice-keeps-blind-people-out-of-employment/

      According to the Hidden Majority Reports ( http://www.euroblind.org/publications-and-resources/guidelines#_Hidden ) there are vast differences in economic activity of blind persons in different European Member States.

      Hidden Majority reports is a series of reports – covering Sweden, Germany, Romania, the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, and France. The reports have included statistics, gathered where these are available and report on the employment situation of blind persons in those countries. The project team were spending several days in each country interviewing policymakers, NGOs and where possible those blind people affected by policies in the country https://www.euractiv.com/section/uk-europe/interview/blind-rights-activist-in-the-uk-66-of-visually-impaired-are-unemployed/

      Hidden Majority It is an EU-funded project administered by the European Blind Union http://www.euroblind.org/

      Economic activity is generally low in Europe, but varies significantly among The Member States. The Hidden Majority report shows that living standards for the blind vary considerably across the European Union, but a uniformly ageing demographic and the challenges of modern technology afflict all people with visual impairments in the same way.

      The European Union (EU) has a strategic aim to support people with disabilities to become economically active, either in the mainstream labour market or in special provision, according to their abilities. The Hidden Majority reports warns that the EU is still far from achieving this goal.

      According to available reports none of the member states reviewed, apart from Sweden, has secured anything approaching a 50% rate of economic activity, and most are still struggling to achieve or maintain a rate approaching 33%, in Romania on other hand as much as 86% of working age population with visual impairments were economically inactive.

      The rate of economic inactivity varies widely. There is also a huge variety in the type of employment delivered. In Spain 80% are involved in the selling of state lottery tickets. If you look at Italy there is a heavy dependence on so-called “reserved occupations” for blind people. This means that the visually impaired tend to be shepherded into jobs which are considered to be blind people’s jobs https://www.euractiv.com/section/uk-europe/interview/blind-rights-activist-in-the-uk-66-of-visually-impaired-are-unemployed/

      The range of so called “reserved occupations” is  reasonably broad. It is not just telephony – though that remains one of the main jobs. There is some mainstream employment as well.

      The more common and modern approach is to skill up blind people and encourage them to join the main employment market. Sweden, Germany, the UK and Austria all have sophisticated support networks and they will provide a support officer where that is required, in those cases a sighted support worker is paid for by the state. There are no clear figures available whether this jobs are more available in private or public sector, but speaking impressionistically, one would suspect that more jobs like this are available in public sector.

      There is a little evidence that Spain is beginning to change its approach away from “reserved occupations”, but they seem to take the view that it’s better to sell state lottery tickets than nothing at all.

      Poland is a very sharp contrast to Romania. The rate of inactivity is high in Poland but they are systematically working to change the situation and activate blind people and they have a rights-based system of employment support. The prediction is that a mainstream market will develop and grow. Romania was very far behind, and many blind people leave in poverty https://www.euractiv.com/section/uk-europe/interview/blind-rights-activist-in-the-uk-66-of-visually-impaired-are-unemployed/

      In Sweden there is a high rate of employment, but only 13% of that group work full time, the rest are part time. There are disagreements about this situation. Some say the employers are under considerable statutory constraint not to dismiss a person who becomes blind, and that this leads to employers guiding the visually impaired to part-time work. Others disagree, and say that those workers would prefer to be part time. Modern employment conditions for blind people can be very difficult, and travel can be a huge strain. So part-time employment might be a rational solution in those circumstances and I do not know which of these two opposing views is true.

      https://www.euractiv.com/section/uk-europe/interview/blind-rights-activist-in-the-uk-66-of-visually-impaired-are-unemployed/


      How can reports like this help blind people


      So much needs to be done in different member states across Europe. The blind people’s organisations in the member states need to study these reports and to put pressure on their own governments. There are things that can be copied. In Sweden, for example, there is strong “retention legislation”. Under this  the employer must retain an employee losing his sight, or – where possible – offer similar employment. Such retention legislation does not exist in all member states, and I see no reason why it should not be introduced in other jurisdictions.


  • Technology as an opportunity and as a challenge in employment of blind persons

    • The second half of the twentieth century saw dramatic advances in many areas of technology. First, the tape recorder; then the extraordinary progress of television. And finally, computers, with information and communication technology. Tape recorders made it much easier for blind workers to carry out clerical and administrative tasks. If they proved they could do a job as speedily and efficiently as ‘the next man’, they had a right to be employed.

      Access to television, as a leisure interest, enabled blind people to enjoy a mainstream activity.

      Above all, computers were made accessible to blind people who quickly became programmers, analysts and trainers. But even more, a blind professional could use a computer with voice synthesis or a Braille display to access all the information available to a sighted colleague.

      All this sounds miraculous, and compared with twenty-five years ago, it is. But nothing moves faster than technology, and we have to run in order to stand still. For example, we have achieved an agreement that websites should be accessible to blind people, by always having text as an alternative to graphics. But these rights are not easy to enforce. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1705870/


      Common challenges threaten blind everywhere


      Moreover, two issues affect the visually impaired wherever they are living in Europe: the fact that they are increasingly common, as a result of the ageing demographic across the continent; and the technological revolution.

      Technology undoubtedly offers opportunities for the blind, from surgical technologies that may postpone deteriorating eyesight, to the type of button-touch modifications that allow Danes to hear subtitles read to them whilst watching television.

      The aged find technology difficult to navigate however, and this problem is exacerbated by blindness.

      Many blind people don’t know how to use the assistive technology. Many times acquiring the equipment is easier to get someone to teach you how to use it. Moreover, the technology is radically adapting existing products and technological advances are also modifying existing goods and products in ways which provide daily challenges for the blind.

      Text-to-speech software can be used to 'read' digital files or text, or for an accessible eBook reader to hear a synthesised voice read books, and there are digital devices available that produce 'refreshable' Braille on a Braille keypad.

      Only a small fraction of websites are fully accessible to blind and partially sighted people, however, and only 5% of books are produced in formats, whether electronic or physical – like paper large-print books – which can be read by blind people or the machines they use.

      In some European countries it is relatively easy for the blind people to acquire assistive technology. But many blind people do not know how to use these types of machines. In many cases it is more difficult for the blind people to get a person, who can teach them how to use such a machine than acquiring machine itself.

      It is more difficult for the persons, who were able to see for the most part of their lives. For them it’s really difficult to get used to how things now work. They have to start all over.

      https://www.euractiv.com/section/health-consumers/news/blind-europeans-divided-by-living-standards-united-by-obstacles/

  • Prejudice and unemployment

    • Prejudice (intolerance or discrimination against a person or group) leads people to think that a blind person will always be less effective than his sighted counterpart. In those circumstances, a blind person must have ‘luck’ (not rights) to find an employer who will decide that they ‘will take a chance’. ‘Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument’ (Dr Samuel Johnson).

      The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights mentions disability only once (Article 25). There was what one might call ‘institutionalised prejudice’ against blind people in the workplace. But, across Europe, things are different now.

      There have been two interrelated factors which have led to blind peoples' rights becoming both recognised and enforceable in some countries.

        • social legislation
        • technology

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1705870/

      However, the blind and heavily impaired sighted people have the highest unemployment rate among disabled groups, despite their great desire to be part of the labour market, according to organisations representing the blind.

      But workplace prejudice might be even more crippling than disability, a new survey shows.

      The survey, conducted by the Danish Blind Society, shows that prejudice is a major reason why so many blind people in Denmark are unemployed. According to the survey, more than one out three Danes is sceptical about having a colleague with sight impairment.

      “There is in general a great uncertainty about what blind people can do. One of my favourite examples is about one of my blind friends. In a job interview she was asked whether she needed help to go to the toilet. This is just one of the things that people think we can’t do,” says Thorkild Olesen, the chairman of the Danish Blind Society.

      “Another prejudice is that many think having a blind colleague would mean more work for themselves. They think that a blind person can’t completely replace someone who doesn’t have problems with their sight. Often it turns out, after having hired a blind person, after a while there aren’t any problems at all,” Olesen told EURACTIV.

      12% of the 9,500 members of the Danish Society for the Blind currently have a job. But 70% of those between 18 and 65 receive early retirement benefits. These statistics make the blind the disabled group with the smallest presence in the labour market.

      https://www.euractiv.com/section/health-consumers/news/workplace-prejudice-keeps-blind-people-out-of-employment/

  • The Blind, Discrimination and the Law

      • Since 1997, in the fifteen member states of the European Union, have adopted Article 13 of the consolidated treaty. This directs European Union institutions to introduce measures against discrimination based on disability. Recent years saw the introduction of a directive on discrimination in employment.
      • The United Nations is planning ‘a comprehensive and integral international convention on the protection and promotion of the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities’. This is likely to be slow-moving. However, since 1993, we have had the (not legally binding) United Nations standard rules for the equalisation of opportunities for persons with disabilities, which have had some effect on state legislation.
      • In many European member states disability living allowance was introduced, reflecting the fact that blind people need compensation to enable them to meet the cost of increased daily living expenses. Other forms of statutory support have given blind people rights to a decent standard of living.


      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1705870/


  • Main recommendations for the greater economic activity of the VIPs

    • The chief recommendation is the need to develop state-funded support services impairment. Blindness has special problems: training, provision of support and specific treatments need to be funded.

      When the state moved in the UK from 1945 onward, the opening up of mainstream employment meant that the opportunities expanded for everyone: there was a doubling of the percentage of visually impaired in employment between 1945 and 1970, and another doubling in the period following that.

      You have to balance imponderables. The rate of inactivity in Italy is under 50%, whereas in the UK and Germany it’s about 66% from our statistics. The impression is that Italy has a lower rate and so does Spain, but they achieve this by concentrating their efforts on the reserved employment.

      https://www.euractiv.com/section/uk-europe/interview/blind-rights-activist-in-the-uk-66-of-visually-impaired-are-unemployed/

      In Sweden there is a high rate of employment, but only 13% of that group work full time, the rest are part time. There are disagreements about this situation. Some say the employers are under considerable statutory constraint not to dismiss a person who becomes blind, and that this leads.

      A good solution would be to gather in one place all the knowledge and expertise on blind and visually impaired people’s inclusion in the labour market. A national resource centre would make sure that a targeted special counselling for blind children, youngsters and adults regarding education from school to employment is achieved. This would break the negative spiral where fewer and fewer blind people get an education. The idea would be to pool together all the national expertise in the area It would make it less bureaucratic for both the visually impaired, employers, colleagues and politicians to find the advice they need, for example in relation to hiring a person with sight impairment https://www.euractiv.com/section/health-consumers/news/workplace-prejudice-keeps-blind-people-out-of-employment/

  • Further reading