Disability news and resources in Europe
This page lists the countries in Europe with resources and recent highlights.
Countries
- Europe
- Albania
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Cyprus
- Czechia
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Kosovo
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Moldova
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- North Macedonia
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Vatican City
- Western Balkans
Recent Highlights
In Europe:
Stories and voices of women and girls with disabilities winners of a photo competition. (Mar, EDF)
Europe's hidden shame: documentary on forced sterilisation of women with disabilities. “They took me to hospital without telling me anything.” See also a feature article. (2023, Euronews)
In France:
Debate over closure of establishments for disabled people has stalled. “Emmanuel Macron recently advocated "deinstitutionalization", while emptying the term of its meaning.” (In French, 2023, Libération) See discussion on the Debrief.
In Romania:
Romania horrified by inhumane abuse in care centres for disabled “an investigation revealed that a well-established criminal network involving state officials and private individuals ran “Nazi camps-style” care centres for disabled people who were left to starve without food or care.” (2023, Euractiv)
In Sweden:
Disability, Gender and Hiring Discrimination: an experiment sending 2,000 job applications found that “nondisabled applicants receive 33 percent more callbacks than similarly qualified wheelchair users despite applying for jobs where the impairment should not interfere with performance” (2023, IZA Institute of Labour Economics)
In Ukraine:
Russia told Ukrainians with disabilities they were visiting the seaside - but they were kidnapped and disappeared:
“Maksym and Inna are among at least 500 Ukrainians with disabilities – including children – that have likely been forcibly removed to Russian-held territory and Russia, according to an 18-month investigation by The Independent. The whereabouts of many of those we have documented remain unknown: of the people taken from Makysm’s facility, only 10 people have reappeared. None has been located from Inna’s.” (May, The Independent)
Families Find a Way: report on families and children in the midst of war. (2023, Disability Rights International)
In the United Kingdom:
Testimonies from the past Debrief feature looking at disabled people's life writing shows how their stories challenge official histories:
“All too often it is only the powerful who get to tell stories. This profoundly shapes how we see the world. But writing history without the testimony of ordinary disabled people is just smoke and mirrors.” (Jun, Disability Debrief)
A new wave of disability media Debrief feature on navigating tensions between art, activism and access. (May, Disability Debrief)
Stop trying to recruit unicorns with acorns. Incisive description of how accessibility roles are undervalued, underfunded, and incorrectly designed:
“I've seen it time and time again. People hire an accessibility specialist because it's a hot topic and it's always good publicity. But then they just leave that person to drown in an environment and an organisation where they are not supported.” (Jan, Craig Abbott)
Does the Government's disability confident scheme improve disability employment outcomes?
“Disabled jobseekers should not assume that Disability Confident organisations are necessarily any more likely than non-Disability Confident organisations to hire and retain them, or provide them with a better experience of work.” (2023, Disability @ Work)
Turning the tide: Debrief feature on fighting for equality when rights are eroded:
“I often feel that we’re going backwards. And some days it’s easy to think we made no progress. But that’s too simple. Our previous gains have put us in a different situation. The civil servants I talk to today have a much better understanding of disability from those I talked to thirty years ago. Disability-related supports can be undermined but the government would find it hard to take them away entirely. Today’s battles are different.” (2023, Disability Debrief)
An uphill battle from day one: “Non-disabled women are twice as likely as disabled women to have the person they accuse of rape charged or summonsed.” (2023, Now Then Magazine)
Asylum seekers with disabilities ‘abandoned’ in former Essex care home. One advocate described this as “putting them in a dustbin and putting the lid on. But what they need is help. What is going on is unpardonable”. (2023, the Guardian)
Signs for Change review of a beautiful documentary by Rose Ayling-Ellis. See also an interview with Rose: “Nobody deaf in this country has the profile I have. I just want to get it right.” (2023, the Guardian)