The ‘European Deafblind Indicators project website’ project was developed from September 2012 to September 2014 by nine deafblind organizations from eight EU Member States. Its importance lies in the certainty that great differences in the degree of attention exist between the various European States.
The deafblind people are using white sticks, which indicates a blind person. But due to the insufficient differentiation, the deafblind people often confront misunderstandings.
The Way of St. James (Camino de Santiago) is a spiritual journey that pilgrims of all backgrounds have traversed for over a thousand years. Pilgrims walk the Way for various reasons: some to seed penance, others enlightenment, others for a sense of adventure. Several deafblind people will take up this challenge next September, a week-challenge that calls for visibility of the deafblind.
As a member of the EDF Board, the EDbN representative, Ricard López, actively attended the meeting representing almost 3 million persons with Deafblindness.
The President of the Republic of Croatia annually honours meritorious individuals, Croatian and foreign nationals, organizations and legal entities with decorations and awards for their outstanding achievements, extraordinary contributions and true excellence in one’s career accomplishments.
On the 20th of January a meeting was held in the European Parliament with with Vicepresident of the Committee of Employment and Social Affairs. We explained the current situation of deafblind people in Europe and the lacks this community has.
The European Deafblind Network (EDbN) has recently received the confirmation of the access rights to the European Parliament premises. This condition will provide the necessary steps to explain the requirements and needs of Deafblindness to all the members of the European institutions.
After two years working on the European Deafblind Project, for Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission, the project is getting to an end. The last meeting will be held in Barcelona and offering an open day conference next 20th June. It is expected the attendance of European and Spanish authorities, as well as professionals working on disabilities, from the social services and bound to deafblindness.
On 11 February 2014, EDF presented its manifesto on the EU elections 2014 at the European Parliament. The event was organised in cooperation with the European Parliament Disability Intergroup and gathered a lot of MEPs; all of them expressed their full endorsement to the key priorities of EDF manifesto.
MEP Adam Kosa, who is also the President of the European Parliament Disability Intergroup, opened the event together with the Vice-President of the Intergroup, MEP Richard Howitt.
“In the next term of the European Commission we need a fully-fledged directorate on disability issues and we hope that we will achieve that. It is time to bring a real change to the lives of persons with disabilities”, said MEP Adam Kosa.
On the occasion of the European Day for people with disabilities (3 December) the European Commission announced that Gothenburg is the winner of the Access City Award 2014. Gothenburg’s commitment to increasing accessibility to transport, housing, work and employment is a good example that other European cities could follow in the future. Priority is given to people with disabilities when accessible homes become available.