Welcome to the last video of the introductory unit of our MOOC, in which we will briefly focus on the most important international documents regulating accessibility for people with disabilities. As you no doubt know, legislation is a very complex and extensive field, and regulations exist on the global, European, national and local level. Moreover, regulations on the national and local level sometimes differ from one country or region to the next. In other words, it is impossible to cover this topic in a detailed and comprehensive way in this short introduction. Therefore we will focus on two important documents that have a very broad reach, namely the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the European Accessibility Act. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was the first ever document with an international scope that established legally binding minimum standards regarding the rights of people with disabilities. It was adopted in 2006, and it entered into force in 2008 as the result of years of hard work by the United Nations, changing attitudes and approaches to people with disabilities. One of the main developments, was that people with disabilities were no longer seen as persons needing charity, but as people who are active members of the society they live in and who can claim their right to participate fully in it. The convention adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities, as we already saw in the video on the concepts of disability and inclusion. And it reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. It determines how all categories of rights apply to persons with disabilities, and it identifies areas where adaptations have to be made for persons with disabilities to effectively exercise their rights and areas where these rights have been violated, and where protection of rights must be reinforced. For more detailed information and the full text of the convention, we refer to the document with additional learning materials for this unit. The second document dealing with the rights of people with disabilities, is the European Accessibility Act. This Act primarily wants to improve the functioning of the European market for accessible products and services by removing barriers created by divergent legislation. This will facilitate the work of companies and it will bring benefits for disabled and older people in the EU. The Act deals with a very broad range of products and services, including amongst others computers and all other technological devices such as smartphones and television equipment, but also audiovisual media, e-books and e-commerce. The aim is that, thanks to these developments, disabled and older people in the European Union will benefit from more accessible products and services that can be offered at more competitive prices, and that they have easier access to education and the labour market. Again, more detailed information and the full text of the Act can be found in the document with additional learning materials. As I mentioned at the beginning of the video, national and local legislation tends to vary across countries and can therefore not be treated here. If you want to know more about existing legislation in your country, you can however take a look at the following website: A site that is fully dedicated to media accessibility and includes a so-called Accessometer, which shows the current status of legislation in the different countries of the world. Do you know about any other legislation in your region or country? Then don’t hesitate and share it, either by contacting the people of MAP, or by sharing it on the forum of this course. Well, that’s it for the first unit. You should now have the necessary basic information to make it through the rest of the course, starting with Unit 2 on Venue Accessibility. Good luck.
