The charities Sense, the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB), Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) and Royal Association for Disability Rights (RADAR) are conducting a campaign for European law to be changed to ensure that manufactured goods are accessible.  Details of the campaign are below:

'Our government is failing to fight for the rights of disabled people at a European level.  Help us to put pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to tell his ministers to fight for the rights disabled people across Europe. Disabled people face widespread discrimination because goods like washing machines, mobile phones or TVs are not often designed to meet our needs. For example, blind people can’t use modern washing machines because they don’t have speech output and deaf people miss out on films without subtitles.

The Disability Discrimination Act does not cover this area, so it's left to the European Union to act. In 2008 the European Commission put forward proposals to address discrimination in access to goods and services, with support from the European Parliament.

If adopted, the proposals would make it a requirement for manufactured goods to be accessible for disabled people. In other words, it would ensure that items such as washing machines, digital TVs, microwaves, mobile phones and so on are designed to be accessible for disabled people.

Sounds good, what's the problem?
Governments of the 27 EU countries are negotiating on this now and will have the final say on whether it goes ahead. Unfortunately, some countries, including the UK, are opposing new EU laws to make manufactured goods accessible, thus wasting a unique opportunity.

We don't have much time
A new round of negotiations on this has just started in Brussels, so it is crucial to put pressure on the Government. We must ensure that the Government is aware of our concerns when it takes part in negotiations and that their position so far is letting disabled people down.

There is a second issue. A new law is being negotiated at the moment that would significantly improve the rights of disabled people across the European Union when using buses and coaches.  The proposed law was meant to cover all bus and coach transport in the EU – international and local transport. 

Unfortunately, some countries, including the UK, have weakened the proposals and the rights disabled people cover have had.  The proposed European law would have led to mandatory training of transport staff (including bus drivers) and better provision of information.  This won’t happen if the UK Government continues to maintain its current opposition.

What can you do?
Write to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and tell him what you think about his Government's position on manufactured goods and transport. The Government will only change its position if we put pressure on them. You can either send the letter as it is, or add in your own views and experiences, as this has a great deal of impact with politicians.'

The campaign petition link can be found at the Sense website
http://bit.ly/accessbydesign