EBU

Description:

The European Blind Union (EBU) is a non-governmental, non-profit-making European organisation founded in 1984. One of the six regional bodies of the World Blind Union, it represents the interests of Blind and Partially-Sighted (BPS) persons at European level.

EBU aims to protect and promote the interests of all BPS people in Europe and works towards an accessible and inclusive society with equal rights and opportunities for them to fully participate in all aspects of social, economic, cultural and political life.

With its large network of 41 national members, EBU brings together a wealth of knowledge and experience on visual impairment and its implications on the daily life of millions of Europeans. EBU provides a platform for its member organisations for the exchange of information, cooperation and collective actions to promote the rights and needs of more than 30 million BPS persons across continental Europe. 

EBU’s working activities include access to culture, to education, to information, ageing and the elderly, employment, rehabilitation and vocation training, rights, mobility and transport, technology, low vision, persons with additional disabilities including deafblind persons, and women. Work in these different areas is carried out by project groups and monitored by the EBU board. Part of the work undertaken by EBU, is also carried out with the direct support of national member organizations' staff and volunteers.

In addition to benefiting from an operating grant from the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme of the European Commission, EBU has coordinated a number of EC-recognized educational projects through the former Lifelong Learning Programme and, more recently, participated in FP7/H2020 projects.

Project role(s):

• EBU will be responsible for identifying the obstacles, challenges and opportunities CAVs represent for BPS persons. Enhanced mobility perspectives offered by CAVs will be discussed as well as their subsequent direct and indirect impact during specific focus groups (FG) held in 4 EU member countries (1 per country). National reports will be drafted and compiled into a European one thus feeding the whole data collection and comparison process implemented in the framework of the PAsCAL project.
• Based on the needs and information collected, prioritised and compiled in the reports aforementioned, EBU will draft recommendations with a view to providing policy-makers with clear and fit-for-purpose guidance on how to make CAVs accessible also to BPS potential drivers while also contributing the BPS near-CAV pedestrians’ perspectives.
• Finally, EBU will disseminate the project’s progress and outcomes though the following modern, accessible and diversified information and awareness–raising channels: EBU website , EBU monthly newsletter (in English), EBU quarterly publication Focus (already available in English, French, German, Spanish and soon also in Serbian and Turkish), EBU podcast on Accessible Technologies ( EBU Access Cast ), Facebook and Twitter accounts and events (e.g. EBU 2019 General Assembly in Rome).