Fourth meeting on "Persons with disabilities in the Digital Society"

The activities and projects realized during long-term cooperation were presented, and it was announced that positive experiences in the field of electronic communications would be expanded into the areas of railway transport and postal services.
 
ZAGREB, 9 December 2021 - In order to remove barriers that make life difficult for persons with disabilities and thus prevent the exercise of their rights, starting from the fact that the task of all public law bodies is to ensure and promote architectural, communication and social accessibility, a round table was held in the organization of HAKOM and Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing of the University of Zagreb (FER) on the subject of “Persons with disabilities in the Digital Society”. This is the fourth gathering which brought together relevant contractors, including of associations of  disability representatives, the Ombudsman's Office for Persons with Disabilities, representatives of operators, educational institutions and all those who implement projects that remove barriers, thus raising the awareness of society as a whole.

The participants were welcomed by Miran Gosta, executive director at HAKOM, who emphasized the long-term successful cooperation with FER in the implementation of numerous projects and announced the raising of such gatherings which contribute to the improvement of conditions for persons with disabilities in the exercise of their rights, to a higher level. The plan is to raise the gathering to an international level, bring together participants from neighbouring countries, exchange experiences and good practices that have been recognised and are being implemented.
 
Dario Jurišić, deputy ombudsman for persons with disabilities, said on the occasion that as many as 15% of the population within the EU is estimated to be persons with disabilities, of whom more than 586 thousand live in Croatia, while more than 80 million people live in the world with some form of disability. In the past period, significant progress has been made, a work has been done to promote awareness, content digitisation has been accelerated, greater accessibility, availability and transparency of websites of public administration bodies has been enabled.

The activities undertaken were presented  including  the projects realized during long-term cooperation between HAKOM and FER, and announced that positive experiences in the field of electronic communications in the forthcoming period would be appropriately translated into the areas of railway transport or when using postal services. In his address to prof.dr. sc Željka Car from Zagreb, FER he  stressed that there was huge motivation among students interested in this area and  ready to work on projects that will enable the application of new technologies and their useful implementation. Throughout all this time, when drafting projects and implementing them, it is of enormous importance and benefit to include associations that gather persons with disabilities and know best all the obstacles in society they are faced with.

During the meeting, operators also presented their activities undertaken to facilitate access to their services to all users and thus presented a virtual shop with a seller, introduction of tactile tags to points of sale or voice-manageable services. The meeting also covered the current legislative framework, as well as the announced amendments, as well as the Directive on the accessibility requirements for products and services which should be introduced in June of next year.