New practical guidelines, co-financed by the EU Commission, to ensure the rights of disabled people are effectively met throughout Europe were launched on Tuesday 21 November 2006 in Brussels. Disability charity Leonard Cheshire co-ordinated the work, which drew on the expertise of policy makers, researchers and disabled people across Europe.
EDAMAT (the European Disability Action Mainstream Assessment Tool) will be used to measure how far general policies, laws and programmes, in areas such as Transport, Health and Education, include the needs and rights of disabled people. It will help policy makers identify steps they must take to move further towards inclusion as well as enable disabled people's organisations (DPOs) to hold them to account.
The EDAMAT framework enshrines 'Four Principles of Effective Mainstreaming': Engagement, Access, Resourcing, and Enforcement. It recognises that mainstreaming presents challenges to policymaking and that 'one size does not fit all'. This means disability issues should be included in general policies, as well as tailored to specific needs.
The launch in Brussels brought together high level policy makers and national disability organisations from across Europe to discuss how EDAMAT could be put to work to make the EU community a more inclusive place.
Richard Howitt MEP, President of the European Parliament's Disability Rights Intergroup says: "EDAMAT is vital in mainstreaming disability issues throughout Europe. The good work done by Leonard Cheshire will help ensure that disability rights are not a peripheral issue to be dealt with as an afterthought, but instead incorporated intrinsically into policies from the beginning and properly implemented throughout"
Available in five languages, EDAMAT will be freely available to anyone involved in the development and monitoring of policy at European, national or local level. Project Administrator Annette Laidler of Leonard Cheshire's International department, says: "EDAMAT will ensure all policies contain an element of social inclusion. It will help ensure the needs of disabled people are not only included in policy but also implemented."
The guidelines were developed over a two year period, during which disabled people, representatives of disability organisations, research academics and policy makers were consulted by a team of researchers in six EU countries: the UK, Ireland, Malta, Portugal, Spain and Greece.
For media enquiries, please contact Sally Clark, Media & PR Officer on 020 7802 8267/sally.clark@lc-uk.org or Amy Wyld on 020 7802 3313/amy.wyld@lc-uk.org
Notes to Editors
EDAMAT consists of:
Leonard Cheshire (www.leonard-cheshire.org) exists to change attitudes to disability and to serve disabled people around the world. It has been supporting disabled people for almost 60 years and is active in 55 countries. The charity directly supports over 21,000 disabled people in the UK.