European Day of Disabled People

Resource Summary Page

European Day of Disabled People

http://eddp.edf-feph.org  is the official website of the European Day of Disabled People and is a joint project of the European Commission and the European Disability Forum. The theme of this year's European Day is Design for All.

On the website you can: 

• Have a look at what's happening around the European Day of Disabled People
• Find out more about the concept of Design for All
• Find out what will be discussed during the Roundtable Discussion in December
• View the discussion on Design for All and Disability
• Nominate a product for the Breaking Barrier Award on Design for All
• Participate in an opinion survey and see the results
• Find links to other disability and Design for all sites and suggest a link
• Spread the message about Design for All and the European Day of Disabled people and send an e-card

Theme 2001

Design for All means designing, developing and marketing mainstream products, services, systems and environments to be accessible by as broad a range of users as possible.
This can be achieved by either: 

• designing products, services and applications that are readily usable by most potential users without any modifications 

• designing products that are easily adaptable to different users (e.g. by adapting their user interfaces) 

• having standardised interfaces that are compatible with specialised equipment (e.g. Assistive technologies) 

By supporting the Design for All principle in all areas of life - home, education, work, leisure, transport, etc., significant progress can be made to reduce the barriers facing disabled people today.

The European Day of Disabled People will highlight the problem of 'Discrimination by design'. As a matter of fact, current design practice leads in many ways to the discrimination of people with disabilities. Unsuitable design prevents access to goods and services and to major areas of social activity such as travel and work. It also reduces the independence and self-determination of disabled people.

In the design field, promoters of Design for All have coined the phrase: "Good design enables, bad design disables". In order to create a European society which enables all its citizens, the European Commission and the European Disability Forum are aiming for the widest possible implementation of Design for All principles.

The European Commission and a diverse range of actors are already considering design for All within a number of policy areas across the European Union such as transports, the information society... Yet further action needs to be taken.

There is an urgent need to integrate the Design for All approach in legislation, as well as in standards, public procurement procedures and other mechanisms, so as to ensure that society becomes fully accessible to all users, regardless of impairment.

The European Day is an opportunity for the disability community to put Design 
for All at the top of the accessibility agenda.

Conclusions from the European Day will be integrated in plans and actions which will be promoted by the European Disability Forum, aiming for significant policy improvements by 2003, the European Year of Disabled People.

Quoted from the web site at: http://eddp.edf-feph.org

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