European Campaigning

1. Copyright

As part of our objective to improve access to information, we are campaigning to improve copyright legislation to ensure exceptions for disabled people work effectively.

Background

The EU Copyright Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and relation rights in the Information Society allows Member States to put in place exceptions for blind and partially sighted people so that they can legally make accessible copies of copyrighted material. Such exceptions are needed because some 95 % of all published works are only published in standard print and are not available to blind people in formats such as audio, large print or Braille.

The issue

The broad character of the wording in the EU Directive on exceptions for disabled people has led a mosaic of different rules being put in place in the EU Member States. That means differences in the amount and type of information disabled citizens of different EU countries can access. These discrepancies have also created legal barriers which prevent specialist agencies making accessible copies of works from sharing these scarce resources across EU countries. If these organisations (such as RNIB in the UK and ONCE in Spain) could share digital files prepared with accessibility in mind, they would save work and cost and thus be able to make a larger number of accessible format books available to blind and partially sighted people.

Campaign

On 16 July 2008 the European Commission published a Green Paper on Copyright in the Knowledge Economy which considered the possibility of revising copyright legislation, including exceptions. The European Blind Union responded, asking for a revision of the Directive's wording on exceptions for disabled people to remove the "mosaic" mentioned above.

However, the Commission Communication on Copyright in the Knowledge Economy of 19/10/2009 rules out the revision of copyright exceptions for disabled people. It proposes instead a "round table" dialogue" between disabled people's organisations and industry to address our concerns.

We are considering how best to proceed. It should be noted that through the World Blind Union we are already talking to European and global organisations in a worldwide version of the round table being proposed by the Commission (the WIPO "Stakeholder Platform"). We are concerned therefore both at the duplication with this global initiative that a European round table might represent, and also at the missed opportunity to improve the European exceptions regime.

Supporting reports/documents

European Blind Union response to the European Commission Green Paper on Copyright in the Knowledge Economy.

http://www.euroblind.org/fichiersGB/positions.html

2 -General Anti Discrimination Directive

Background

The European Commission proposed a Directive implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation in the summer of 2008.

RNIB worked closely with UK disability charities Sense, Guide Dogs for Blind People, Leonard Cheshire Disability and RNID to lobby the European Parliament to make sure that the provisions in the directive take into account the need of people with disabilities. The European Parliament approved a great deal of the amendments that we supported and the Directive was adopted on 2 April 2009.

The issue

This Directive follows the so-called 'consultation procedure', so we are now focusing our lobbying on governments, who will have the final say. The draft proposed by the European Commission includes the design and manufacture of goods within its scope, however there is some opposition amongst Member States on this issue.

Campaign

RNIB continues to work with other UK Disability Charities and organisations of blind people in other EU countries in order to make sure that the Directive provides the best possible provisions for blind and partially sighted people.

Supporting report/documents

European Commission Directive on Equal Treatment:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52008PC0426:EN:NOT

European Blind Union position paper on the Equal Treatment Directive

http://www.euroblind.org/fichiersGB/positions.html

3. e-Accessibility

As part of our objective to improve access to information, we are campaigning to improve the accessibility of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) products and services so that they can be used by all users, including disabled and older people. This is what is meant by "e-Accessibility".

Background

The growth and popularity of ICT means that ever more products are being manufactured that use visual displays and ever more services are being delivered using online by manufacturers and service providers with little or no awareness of accessibility issues and standards.
The issue

e-Accessibility issues arise across the full spectrum of ICT products and services, including electronic telecommunications services and equipment, media services and equipment, computer hardware and software, financial services etc.

As information and communication technologies converge, there is an opportunity to introduce accessibility from the start into converged platforms - as well as a danger that this will not happen.

As online TV technology (IPTV) develops, for instance, there is the opportunity to address the issue of audio-description which was not dealt with in old Digital TV technology. The same is true with regard to electronic communications: although a regulatory framework covering fixed-line communications exists, mobile communications and broadband are still very much under-regulated, in particular with regard to accessibility.

Campaign

We have long been calling for e-Accessibility and web accessibility legislation, not only to ensure full inclusion of disabled people in society but also to address the needs of the ageing population.
The Measuring Progress of e-Accessibility in Europe study, published in November 2007, underlined what we have known for several years by showing that voluntary mainstreaming of accessibility in goods and services has not led to significant progress and, in particular, that the market has failed to ensure the accessibility of ICT.

We attended both the Lisbon 2007 and Vienna 2008 "eInclusion" conferences the European Commission organised. See this link for the Vienna event:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/e-inclusion/2008/index_en.htm

At these events we spoke to raise awareness of the inaccessibility of much of the digital world. At Vienna we had a stand which stressed that without properly accessible digital TV equipment, digital switchover would mean "switch off" for blind and partially sighted people.

On 1st December 2008 the European Commission adopted the Communication "Towards an accessible information society". We drafted the European Blind Union response to this Communication, in which we questioned the validity of the "soft" measures it outlined. For the EBU response, see this link: