Mainstreaming disability equality in the European Union
Summary
More than 80 million disabled people live in the European Union and up to a quarter of the adult population say they feel in some way limited in the activities of their everyday lives. Research in the School has been at the forefront in showing the EU institutions how they can challenge this exclusion by revealing disabling barriers in society and acting to remove them.
An international research programme led by Emeritus Professor Mark Priestley to embed and strengthen disability equality across the work of the EU institutions with benefits for millions of citizens. The main research effort stems from the establishment of an Academic Network of European Disability experts (ANED) under Priestley’s directorship, from 2008 for over a decade. This network mapped disability policies at the EU and national level, analysed disability issues thematically, made policy recommendations and developed new monitoring indicators and tools. The research sought to promote and to increase disability equality mainstreaming in the work of the EU institutions and used mixed methods to equip policy makers with evidence and tools to intervene in relevant policy debates and processes.
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Different EU institutions continue to use the research to: (a) make disability equality more visible in the European policy co-ordination; (b) implement new disability equality monitoring methods and indicators; and (c) justify support for new policies of mutual recognition and harmonisation among the Member States, including new legislation.
Impact
European Commission staff used the findings to raise disability issues in their annual Country Reports and in Recommendations to Member States. Consequently, by 2019, all 28 of their country analyses raised disability issues, twice as many as in 2012. As a result, visibility of these issues in high-level EU initiatives rose significantly.
EU institutions also adopted new methods of monitoring disability equality arising from the research. The EU statistical office (Eurostat) launched a disability database, including measures piloted in the research to demonstrate the feasibility of disability equality indicators in Europe. The EU Social Protection Committee adopted a disability indicator in its Social Protection Performance Monitor (SPPM) and Eurostat agreed to include a disability variable in all of its major social surveys. The European Parliament also began to monitor disability issues in citizens’ petitions.
The European Commission used the research on mutual recognition of disability benefits to propose a new ‘European Disability Card’. This allows persons recognised as disabled in one country to access selected rights in reciprocating countries, without reassessment. In 2020, the European Parliament called for its extension to disability benefits in all EU Member States.
Priestley’s findings on accessibility standards were also key to the Commission’s 2015 business case for a new ‘European Accessibility Act’. This EU Directive improves access for disabled people through design standards for a range of everyday technologies (e.g., computers and operating systems, ATMs, smartphones, transport services, e-books and so on), regulating standards throughout the European single market and global imports to that market.
Publications and Outputs
Priestley, M. (2018) Mainstreaming Disability Equality in the European Semester 2018–19: Policy Issues and Questions, Academic Network of European Disability (ANED) experts.
Priestley, M. (2016) The Protection Role of the Committee on Petitions in the Context of the Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, European Parliament Policy Department C: Citizens' Rights And Constitutional Affairs, PE 571.384.
Priestley, M., Stickings, M., Loja, E., Grammenos, S., Lawson, A., Waddington, L. and Fridriksdottir B. (2016) ‘The political participation of disabled people in Europe: rights, accessibility and representation’, Electoral Studies 42:1-9.
Priestley, M., Grammenos, S., Zwamborn, M. and Groenendijk, I. (2016) From Institutions to Community Living: Development of Statistical Outcome Indicators, Human European Consultancy for the European Union Agency on Fundamental Rights.
Priestley, M. (2013) National Accessibility Requirements and Standards for Products and Services in the European Single Market: Overview and Examples.
Waddington, L. and Priestley, M. (2020) ‘A human rights approach to disability assessment’, Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, 1-15.