COFACE Families Europe submitted its response to the European Commission open consultation on enhancing the strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities up to 2030.
Among our priorities, we call for the adoption of a strong family dimension in the new phase of the strategy through concrete actions; the enhancement of the monitoring and implementation mechanisms for disability policies and legislations that have a family dimension, especially in the field of employment, education and the fight against poverty and social exclusion, with a focus on reasonable accommodation, as well as stronger coordination between relevant EU policies; a better and more precise collection of data regarding families and disability; as well as specific actions related to parents with disabilities, early childhood intervention (ECI), integrated family support, “after us“, social dialogue and governance.
COFACE is pleased that the family dimension was emphasised in the EU guidance on independent living, and that the European Parliament, in its resolution on the EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities post-2024, calls for strong supporting measures for the families and carers of persons with disabilities to be integrated in the new phase of the Strategy.
We welcome these developments and reiterate our call for the family approach to be decisively reinforced in the next phase of the Strategy, through the following actions:
- Giving greater attention to the situation of parents with disabilities and their families. Specific attention to parenthood and disability remains weak at EU and national level
- Strengthen monitoring systems for the implementation of EU policies that cover family carers of persons with disabilities and parents with disabilities
- Regarding the situation of mothers with disabilities, greater coordination and strengthening of the links between the Gender Equality Strategy and the Disability Strategy are needed
- Give greater attention to the support needs of families with children with disabilities and their family carers, namely through integrated family support approaches at local level such through family centre models and peer support models.
- Develop measures to address the situation that arises when the primary carer of a person with disabilities is no longer there or able to care for them, and on how to prevent institutionalisation in these circumstances, taking the Italian law on “dopo di noi” as a starting point for reflection.
- Stronger reasonable accommodation measures in employment and education. Develop European guidelines on minimum standards for reasonable accommodation in schools including training for education professionals in the use of new accessible technologies, the availability of accessible materials and tools, the promotion of inclusive curricula, accessibility in teaching methods, the assessment processes and the school environment.
