The European Accessibility Center (AccessibleEU), Led by the ONCE Foundation, it has completed its first year of operation, meeting the set objectives, which have materialized in actions such as the organization of events and the creation of a community of experts and an online library.
In December 2022, the European Commission awarded a consortium of entities the implementation of AccessibleEU, as part of the commitments of the European Accessibility Strategy. In its first year of work, it has organized a total of 90 events, seven of them at European level, and made up of 25 networking events, 34 awareness-raising events and 31 workshops.
The creation of a community of accessibility experts has been possible thanks to the organized events. This makes it possible to connect all parties interested in the matter, create a single window of knowledge, develop a training program for professionals and promote technical standardization and the participation of people with disabilities in its mechanisms.
The ONCE Foundation highlights the impact of AccessibleEU at the national level thanks to the work of national accessibility experts and the cooperation with institutions such as the International Telecommunications Union, the World Tourism Organization and the Association for the Advancement of Information Technology. Assistance in Europe. All this has allowed the production of very useful support materials to promote accessibility.
To meet the objective of facilitating the practical application of EU accessibility legislation and thus improving the availability of more accessible products, services and infrastructure, an online accessibility library has been launched.
It has more than 150 good practices and direct access, through links, to the most relevant databases related to legislation, standards, documentation, products and assistive technologies.
As next goals, the AccessibleEU consortium has set itself the goal of offering guidelines for implementing disability policies in different sectors and ensuring compliance with standards and guidelines regarding accessibility. To do this, it aims to design an innovative methodology that allows the self-assessment of organizations in this field.
Source: ESMARTCITY
Fundación ONCE hosted in Madrid the conference organized by the International Telecommunications Union, the European Commission and AccessibleEU in which the Government committed to intensifying digital policies on social inclusion in a way that guarantees digital accessibility for people with disabilities. .
The opening ceremony was attended by Rosa Martínez, Secretary of State for Social Rights and Agenda 2030; María González Veracruz, Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, and Miguel Carballeda, president of the ONCE Social Group.
In their speech, both Government officials committed to the objective of implementing accessible digital policies. “It is vital for the entire society and particularly for people with disabilities,” said González Veracruz. “That commitment is key,” she stressed, “if not, the gap that is generated is exponential.”
For this reason, she opted for a humanist digitalization, which puts people at the center. “My greatest commitment is to continue working so that the objectives set by Europe are a reality for the entire population,” she concluded.
For her part, Rosa Martínez first recognized the “solid work” of the ONCE Foundation, which has managed to ensure that the European Accessibility Center is led from Spain, which, she emphasized, “is a source of pride.”
For this reason, and in line with what was expressed by María González, the Secretary of State for Social Rights affirmed that the Executive will continue working to make digitalization “an opportunity” and not a brake for people with disabilities, who often see how The barriers they encounter in the health, work or leisure fields “are reproduced in the access and use of digital.”
From this perspective, he committed to promoting “public policies supported by science” that ensure that in the acceleration that the digital world is experiencing “no one is left out or becomes a second-class citizen” and that they offer “certainty and security.” to the entire population.
Because, she concluded, “digitalization opens up enormous opportunities, but we must take care of its risks by putting people at the center and ensuring that it does not widen gaps or generate new inequalities.”
Finally, Miguel Carballeda picked up the Government’s baton to work so that digitalization is an opportunity and not a barrier for people with disabilities. “They have committed themselves and I thank them,” he responded.
It is a responsibility to be the accessibility machine,” continued the president of the ONCE Social Group, who insisted on the importance of maintaining this position and contributing to making “a better country and a Europe for all citizens.” “Spain, Europe and people with disabilities deserve it. We can be an example for the rest of the world,” he concluded.
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Inserta Innovación, an entity dependent on the ONCE Foundation, is working to ensure that new technologies take disability into account, an example of this is the 