European Disability Strategy 2010-2020

The first European Disability Strategy was a commitment of the Commission together with the Member States for the 2010-2020 period to tackle the obstacles to a barrier-free Europe. This Strategy took the necessary steps to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at EU level, including inside the EU institutions.

The overall aim of this Strategy was to empower people with disabilities so that they can enjoy their full rights, and benefit fully from participating in society and in the European economy, notably through the Single market. This Strategy identified eight main areas for actions at EU level to supplement national ones: Accessibility, Participation, Equality, Employment, Education and training, Social protection, Health, and External Action. For each area, key actions were identified.

Image: EDS, EUD

The final evaluation report of the Strategy showed that progress has been made in all eight areas for actions thanks to initiatives such as the Directive on Web Accessibility making public websites accessible to all, the proposal for a European Accessibility Act, the EU Disability Card project making it easier for people with disabilities to travel across the EU, the Erasmus+ programme allowing better mobility for students with disabilities and the increased attention paid to disability in EU external action policies and the Cross-Border Healthcare Directive. However, the evaluation reported that its impact on improving the education, training and levels of employment of people with disabilities, although overall positive, was not clearly measurable. The Strategy lacked benchmarks to measure the achievement of its objectives and a monitoring framework to evaluate its implementation. In addition to that, the evaluation pointed out the need for more and better data collection on people with disabilities across key action areas.