VDK and BAGSO call for greater accessibility prior to 2017 German election

Ahead of the German election planned in September 2017, AGE’s German member organisations VDK and BAGSO have co-signed – together with 13 other German organisations – a Joint Declaration on Accessibility.

In Germany, people with disabilities still encounter insurmountable obstacles in their role as citizens, consumers or patients. Existing legal requirements are often inadequate or non-binding and their implementation is not checked.

In this declaration, the signatories remind Germany’s commitment as a ratifier (in 2009) of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) to take appropriate measures for a barrier-free society. They also highlight accessibility as being an essential prerequisite so that all people can participate equally in life, including persons with a (permanent or temporary) impairment, older people, children, parents, etc.

The declaration also calls for a number of measures to be taken to improve the accessibility of private goods and services, of transport and in apartments and residential areas.

Read the Joint Declaration (in German) here

In paralell to this statement, VDK is also running a national campaign for greater accessibility, which makes a comparison between man’s first step on the moon in 1969 and the barriers that wheelchair users are facing in 2017 to merely get into the train: https://www.weg-mit-den-barrieren.de/