European Disability Forum: How can persons with disabilities be active citizens?

On 9-10 November, the DISCIT project held its final conference to discuss the results of its 3-year research about active citizenship for persons with disabilities. Researchers from the project, the European Disability Forum (EDF) as partner of the project and other civil society organisations, leading scholars in the field, and various policy makers, gathered in the Norway Mission to the European Union (EU) in Brussels to discuss the potential impact of the project’s findings on EU social policies.

DISCIT project has run from February 2013 and it will officially end in January 2016. Its aim has been to produce new knowledge that will enable the EU, its Members States and affiliated European countries to achieve full and effective participation of persons with disabilities in society and the economy in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD).

Based on the key themes of the project, there were several panel discussions during the final conference:

  • Community living in Europe
  • Life courses of persons with psycho-social disabilities
  • Labour market and participation of persons with disabilities
  • UN CRPD and the opportunities of persons with disabilities and their representative organisations
  • Accessible technology for persons with disabilities

What’s next?

Provisional findings from DISCIT have been published as working papers and policy briefs at the website www.discit.eu. In the coming two months, the final results will be published the same there as well. The EU and its Member States will use the results for future policymaking. At the closing session of the project, the Deputy Head of Unit for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the European Commission, Inmaculada Placencia Porrero, suggested a meeting with the Disability High Level Group, in which the researchers can present the findings of the project to officials from the European Commission and EU Member States.

More information

EDF has created a video that explains what active citizenship means, how the situation is for 80 million persons with disabilities in Europe and what DISCIT project is all about. Watch it on YouTube with subtitles and a voice over.

The photos of the two-day conference are available on Dropbox.

Find out more about DISCIT here.

Full article.