EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE-GENERAL ENTERPRISE AND INDUSTRY DIRECTORATE-GENERAL JUSTICE European Day of Persons with Disabilities 2013. European Tourism Day 2013. A big meeting about making it easier for people with disabilities to travel around Europe What happened at the meeting Easy to read 1
What this paper is about There was a big meeting on 3 and 4 December 2013. It was in a country called Belgium. The meeting was about making it easier for people with disabilities to travel around Europe. People from different countries in Europe came to the meeting. This paper tells you the main things that people talked about at the meeting. 2
The main things people said It is very important that people with disabilities can travel around Europe like everyone else. This is good for everyone. Europe will make more money from this as well. Some good work has happened already. But there is much more to do. We must work with people with disabilities and listen to what they say. 3
Staff must get good training. People need better information about travel. Computers, websites and phones can give people good information about travel. They can make it easier for people to travel. The people in charge of laws in Europe can make it easier for people with disabilities to travel. But different groups of people must work together as well. 4
Day 1 of the meeting 3 December The main things people said There will be more older people and people with disabilities in the future. We must think about them. It is good to have rules that all countries can follow. This will help everyone do things in the same way. For example, there could be rules about how to make places easy for everyone to visit. 5
Lots of things need to be easy for people. There needs to be good transport good information buildings that are easy to use places that are easy to visit People with disabilities have lots of rights when they travel in Europe. We need to make sure people know about these rights. There are ways to make hotels easy to stay in. For example, making all rooms easy to stay in giving staff good training 6
There are ways to make amusement parks easier for people with disabilities to visit. These are places like Disneyland Paris. They have rides to go on and other things to do. Disneyland is good for people with disabilities. We must think about the needs of people with intellectual disabilities people with autism Making cities in Europe easier for people with disabilities to live in and visit A city called Gothenburg won an award for this. People there have worked hard to make their city easier for people with disabilities. 7
Day 2 of the meeting 4 December The main things people said Making things better does not always cost a lot of money. There will be a big sports event in Scotland in 2014. It is called the Commonwealth Games. Lots of countries will take part. The event will be easy for people with disabilities to go to. 8
It is hard for some people from other countries to travel to Europe. This is because they need a piece of paper called a visa to go there. It can be very hard to get a visa. People have extra rights when they book some types of holidays in Europe. For example, if they book a flight and a hotel at the same time. These rights do not work well for everyone at the moment. Work is happening to change them. Holidays should not cost too much money. 9
Some good work that is happening Some old and important places in Europe are now easier to visit. There are plans to help countries in Europe work better together. They can work to make it easier for people with disabilities to travel. There are plans to tell more people about their rights when they travel. 10
There is a sign that some places can put in their window. It shows that the places are good for people with disabilities. Some countries in Europe are using this sign now. Some hotels are working hard to make it easy for people with disabilities to stay there. Phones, websites and computers are making it easier for people to travel. For example, there are things called apps on some phones and computers. They can tell people things like how to get to places when to get off a train or bus what time a place opens or closes where to find restaurants and hotels 11
Some good projects are happening to see how phones and computers can help people travel. Many countries are doing good work to help people plan a trip. For example, there is a website called www.jaccede.com It tells people how easy places are to visit. There is a new machine that helps people with disabilities swim in the sea. Many beaches in Portugal are easier for people with disabilities to visit. There is some easy to read information about cities called Dublin, Lisbon and Rome. 12
There are some holiday places in Italy and Austria where everything is easy for people with disabilities to use. The European Union is helping more people enjoy things like art films books music theatre They are giving some money for this. This will help people with disabilities as well. The European Union is a group of countries that work together to make Europe better. They are often called the EU. This document was made to the European Standards for making information easy to read and understand www.easy-to-read.eu 13