In a letter dated 7 August, the European Disability Forum (EDF) calls on the Presidents of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to improve the accessibility of the State of the Union address.
A similar request in 2022 enabled the association to secure a number of improvements, including the interpretation of the speech in international sign language on the Commission’s Twitter feed and automatically generated live subtitling on a dedicated European Parliament web page. However, it feels that these efforts are not enough to make this “flagship yearly address” fully accessible.
EDF is asking for: - real-time interpretation in international sign language on the institutions’ websites; - human-generated live captioning; - interpretation into the various national sign languages via the European Parliament’s liaison offices; - an “easy-to-read” summary of the speech.
On the substance, EDF welcomes the fact that the Commission made the European disability card (to be presented on 6 September) one of its political priorities last year (see EUROPE 13083/6) and encourages it to “continue its efforts in disability rights”.
Mrs von der Leyen will deliver her State of the Union address on 13 September, at the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg.
The letter: https://aeur.eu/f/8c4 (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)