Access For All

The Kessler Foundation and the National Organization on Disabilities commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct the 2010 Survey of Americans with Disabilities. Among the findings they identified that employment represents the largest gap between the two groups. Of all working-age people with disabilities, only 21% say that they are employed, compared to 59% of people without disabilities – a gap of 38 percentage points. People with disabilities are still much more likely to be living in poverty. People with disabilities are less likely than those without disabilities to socialize with friends, relatives or neighbors, once again suggesting that there are significant barriers to participation in leisure activities for this population. The second-largest gap between people with and without disabilities is regarding Internet access. 85% of adults without disabilities access the Internet, whereas only 54% of adults with disabilities report the same – a gap of 31 percentage points.
Source: Kessler Foundation

In the EU27, 65% of households 1 had access to the internet during the first quarter of 2009, compared with 60% during the first quarter of 2008, and 56% had a broadband internet connection in 2009, compared with 49% in 2008.
These data 2 published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, represent only a small part of the results of a survey on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) usage in households and by individuals in the EU27 Member States, the candidate countries, Norway, Iceland and Serbia . As well as internet use and broadband connections, the survey also covers other indicators such as e-shopping, e-government and advanced communication and content related services.
Household internet access ranges from 30% in Bulgaria to 90% in the Netherlands.
In 2009, the proportion of households with internet access was three quarters or more in the Netherlands (90%), Luxembourg (87%), Sweden (86%), Denmark (83%), Germany (79%), Finland (78%) and the United Kingdom (77%). The lowest shares were registered in Bulgaria (30%), Greece and Romania (both 38%).
The proportion of households with a broadband connection in 2009 was highest in Sweden (80%), the Netherlands (77%) and Denmark (76%).
Almost 40% of individuals shop online.
Nearly three quarters of those aged 16-24 in the EU27 used the internet on average daily or almost daily in the first quarter of 2009, compared with nearly half of all individuals aged 16-74. The highest shares for those aged 16-24 were found in the Netherlands (90%), Denmark and Estonia (both 88%), Finland and Sweden (both 87%), and the lowest in Romania (41%), Greece (57%) and Ireland (58%).
In 2009, 37% of individuals aged 16-74 in the EU27 had bought or ordered goods or services over the internet in the last 12 months. This share varied considerably between Member States, ranging from 2% in Romania , 5% in Bulgaria and 8% in Lithuania to 66% in the United Kingdom , 64% in Denmark and 63% in the Netherlands and Sweden . In the EU27 , 40% of men had ordered goods or services over the internet, compared with 34% of women. The share for men was higher than for women in almost all Member States.
Download the full press release and the Internet usage in 2009 – Households and Individuals – Issue number 46/2009 survey.

University of Surrey is carrying a research project regarding “User Requirements and Technology Acceptance of an Information Tourism System: The Disability Case”. The overall aim of the project is to investigate the content and usability needs of people with disabilities when searching information about the accessibility of tourist destinations on-line. The research will be kept on-line until end of December 2009. If you are interested in contributing, the questionnaire is completely anonymous.

Technosite is carrying out the European Commission Service Contract SMART 2008/0069 “Accessibbility of European Commission websites. Analysis of current status and recommendations for improvement by reference to relevant specifications, notably WCAG 2.0” which includes an open online survey that you can find in the next link.

The Commission is inviting citizens (with or without disabilities) to use this questionnaire to express their degree of satisfaction about the accessibility and user experience with European Commission websites they have used. The deadline is 6th of September 2009.

- As received from the MARE project -
Once again you are kindly invited to spend a few minutes to complete anonymous questionnaire only 6 questions on-line on the Web www.mareproject.eu. (language EN, IT, ES) about the satisfaction of Assistive technology or services related used.
For us your contribution is the most important, as we really want to make the future AT development analysis and the possible improvements of this sector, which makes the ageing and disabled daily life easier. At the moment we are lacking the answers from the users of AT, and you only you, the user of AT can say the exact problems faced everyday According to this analysis and the second one the EC will publish the guidelines for 2020 for public authorities and AT business sector in Europe.
We thank you in advance for your participation.

In order to assess the use of Person Centred Technology (PCT) which includes all ICT and EAT devices, the ImPaCT project launched an online survey (http://easpd.hft.org.uk/). The gathered information will then be used by the ImPaCT in Europe project team to evaluate and promote the benefits of PCT for people with disabilities.

Completing the questionnaire should not take too long, and your inputs will be invaluable!
In case of questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Miriana Giraldi.