On March 20th, the European Disability Forum (EDF) organised a webinar on the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC). Among other objectives, this directive aims at strengthening the protection of all consumers as well as their rights across the EU. This includes a greater flexibility and choice of services for all end-users, particularly, for end-users with disabilities.
This webinar was conducted by Marie Denninghaus, EDF Policy Coordinator and was supported by Raquel Riaza, Events and Administration Officer and by other colleagues from EDF‘s office. The webinar was accessible for persons with disabilities providing live captioning and international sign language interpretation. It was recorded and it will be available on EDF’s website.
There were two speakers who are members of the EDF team: Alejandro Moledo, EDF Policy Coordinator, and Mher Hakobyan, EDF Accessibility Officer.
The webinar was structured in two parts. The first one was an in-depth overview of this directive. They explained the scope and the objectives of this legislation as well as the deadline for national transposition. The speakers also presented the enforcement mechanism of the legislation and the national regulators and other competent bodies responsible for these telecoms rules.
The second part was focused on the aspects of the Code that particularly concern persons with disabilities ensuring equal access and choice of electronic communication services. EDF speakers presented different articles of the EECC through which availability, affordability and accessibility of electronic communications, including emergency communications, for persons with disabilities can be ensured.
In addition, there was a first round of questions and answers between the first and the second part, and another one at the end.
Finally, they presented the EDF toolkit for disability advocates to engage in the national negotiations about the transposition of the EECC, which was published right after the webinar. It was announced that another webinar about the European Accessibility Act will also be prepared, though the date wasn’t fixed yet.
