Fundación ONCE presents AccessibleEU at the World Public Transport Summit

The project aims to implement accessibility policies in the European Union (EU) member states and is managed by a consortium comprising organisations and experts.

'AccessibleEU' is one of the flagship initiatives proposed by the European Commission in the 2021-2030 Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It will enhance policy coherence on accessibility and facilitate access to relevant knowledge.

The presentation was attended by Inmaculada Placencia, head of the Unit for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities at the EU, and Anne-Laure Le Merre, an expert from the International Association of Public Transport (UITP). A delegation from Fundación ONCE, led by its director Jesús Hernández, also attended the event.

Throughout the day, two roundtable discussions were held. The first one, titled 'How to implement accessibility in public transport?', included representatives from TMB, the Municipal Transport Company of the Helsinki Region, and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

Later, the roundtable discussion 'Learning from operators and manufacturers' featured representatives from Renfe, Alstom, Caetano Bus, Alsa, and Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat de Catalunya.

AccessibleEU

AccessibleEU consortium is led by Fundación ONCE, an internationally renowned organization in accessibility, along with the Austrian university Johannes Kepler University of Linz, the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT), the Spanish Association for Standardization (UNE) and the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD).

The main objective of the Accessibility Resource Centre is to facilitate the practical implementation of EU legislation on accessibility to improve the availability of more accessible products, services, and infrastructures in the EU.

In this regard, an online accessibility library will be launched, providing direct access through links to the most important databases on legislation, standards, documentation on accessibility, products, and assistive technologies, among others.

Additionally, the Centre aims to create a community of accessibility experts, connect all stakeholders in this field, establish a one-stop knowledge hub, develop a professional training program, and promote technical standardization and the participation of people with disabilities in its mechanisms.

Finally, AccessibleEU will offer guidelines on how to implement disability policies in different sectors and ensure compliance with various accessibility standards and guidelines. To achieve this, an innovative methodology will be designed to allow organizations to self-evaluate their efforts in the field.