You can watch the complete webinar here.
On April 10th the European Disability Forum (EDF) organised a two hours webinar about the COVID-19 pandemic and what challenges are persons with disabilities are facing. The speakers shared how persons with disabilities are experiencing the measures adopted by the different countries when these don’t take into consideration a disability perspective.
This webinar was conducted by André Félix, EDF External Communications Coordinator and was supported by Raquel Riaza, Events and Administration Officer and by other colleagues from EDF‘s office. The webinar was accessible for persons with disabilities providing live captioning and international sign language interpretation. It was recorded and it will be available on EDF’s website.
EDF President, Yannis Vardakastanis, gave an opening speech in which he touched upon the situation in Greece and how this pandemic will be a turning point in the discussion about CRPD and the SDGs.
Catherine Naughton and André Felix spoke about the main areas of EDF’s work on the pandemic and the main issues that have been in common across Europe.
Likewise, EDF members from the most affected countries in Europe, Italy and Spain, explained about the situation in their countries.
First, Pilar Villarino and Jesús Martín, from CERMI (Spanish National Council of Persons with Disabilities) took the floor. Ms Villarino gave an overview on the situation and stressed the role of the disability movement as agent of change. Then, Mr Martín spoke about the main cases of discrimination that persons with disabilities face during this crisis in Spain.
Luisa Bosisio and Giampiero Griffo, both EDF board members, presented the situation of Italy. Ms Bosisio briefly described the state of the crisis in Italy, and afterwards Mr Griffo complemented the presentation with the objectives that the disability movement tried to obtain.
Moreover, Ana Peláez, EDF Vice-president, added on the situation in Spain providing more data and she also underlined the issue of the discrimination in triage.
Finally there was time for other EDF members attending the webinar to take the floor, followed by questions and answers.