Blog by Wouter Bolier, Accessibility Policy Officer at ieder(in)
On “The Future Is Accessible Tour” Member of the European Parliament Katrin Langensiepen from Germany travels with colleagues to different Member States to talk to disability activists, NGOs, politicians, entrepreneurs to listen to their concerns and ideas, and to see best practices of accessibility and inclusion and bring these back to the European Parliament. As part of this tour, MEP Langensiepen, together with Dutch MEP Kim van Sparrentak, visited us at our office in the city of Utrecht.
On a Friday morning in January, together with representatives of our members and network organisations, we talked about the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), accessible housing and universal design. We were able to give the Members of the European Parliament a good impression of how inaccessible The Netherlands is for persons with disabilities.
For instance, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is very concerned about the situation in The Netherlands (including the Caribbean Netherlands) and published some strong critical concluding observations last summer.
Since the ratification of the UN CRPD by the Dutch government in 2016, the lives of persons with disabilities have been worsened, whereas they should have been improved. We shared our experiences and told Kim and Katrin about our recent campaign of ‘our patience has run out! ”In Dutch: Ons geduld is op!”
At the meeting we exchanged contact details and agreed to keep in touch.
About Ieder(in)
Ieder(in) is The Netherlands’ national umbrella organisation for persons with disabilities, representing the collective interests of more than 2 million persons with a disability in The Netherlands. Ieder(in) has 250 member organisations, including national disability organisations and local disability platforms. Known in Europe as the Dutch Disability Council or the Dutch Disability Platform, Ieder(in) is a national member of EDF. A small team of policy officers and communications advisors at Ieder(in) works on European affairs.