The European Commission has adopted the EU Disability Strategy aiming to eradicate the existing barriers which prevent millions of EU citizens from having access to many services and are major obstacles which put many activities out of reach. This strategy includes specific measures to be developed in the coming years in order to increase the accessibility and public awareness in this area.

The European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 "A Renewed Commitment to a Barrier-Free Europe", includes a list of concrete actions and a timetable, and marks a renewal of the EU's commitment to improve the situation of Europeans with disabilities, completing the actions developed individually  by each Member States.

Main actions included in EU Disability Strategy 2010-2020

• Accessibility initiative: considering how to use standardisation, public procurement or state aid rules to make all goods and services accessible to people with disabilities while fostering an EU market for assistive devices (“European Accessibility Act”). This market is expected to grow considerably in the coming years, following the experience in the United States.
• Participation: making sure that persons with disabilities and their families exercise their EU citizenship rights on an equal footing through the mutual recognition of disability cards and related entitlements; facilitating the use of sign language and Braille when exercising EU citizens' electoral rights or dealing with EU institutions; promoting an accessible format of websites and copyrighted works, such as books.
• Funding: ensuring that EU programmes and funds in policy areas relevant to people with disabilities are used to promote sound working conditions for professional and informal care providers and develop personal-assistance schemes.
• More cooperation between Member States (through the High Level Group on Disability) and civil society: providing a forum for the exchange of data and policy coordination, in particular on the portability of rights, such as the right to personal assistance.
• Awareness-raising: raising public awareness of disability and accessibility, such as through the European award for accessible cities.
• Data collection and monitoring: improving knowledge about the situation of people with disabilities in Europe and the barriers they face in their everyday lives while also identifying and promoting successful support structures put in place by Member States at national level.

Besides, the Commission will regularly report on the plan’s achievements and progress complying with its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD) which it has signed.