European Disability Forum is an umbrella organisation of persons with disabilities, defending the interests of more than 100 million persons with disabilities in Europe.
With this grant, the European Disability Forum will run a two-year programme to advance disability-inclusive AI in Europe. It will help national disability organisations take part in putting the AI Act into practice, and update AI guidance on enforcement and complaints. It will influence future AI policies and guidelines at EU and national level so they protect accessibility and non-discrimination, and it will monitor the EU's possible ratification of the Council of Europe's AI convention. It will also carry out research on how AI affects women, racialised people and young people with disabilities, and create a youth-friendly AI literacy toolkit with young people with disabilities.
With this grant, the European Disability Forum continued advocating to EU institutions, EU Member States and the Council of Europe on AI, working with groups like EDRi and the AI core group, and informed AI standards so they protect the rights of people with disabilities.
It trained its European and national members to monitor the AI Act and created materials for national advocacy. It also raised awareness of why AI must be inclusive and accessible, through research, a European and national campaign aimed at the disability movement, policymakers and tech experts, an AI newsletter, media outreach and a new AI conference.
The European Disability Forum’s (EDF) played an important role in ensuring that the AI Act included provisions to protect the rights of persons with disabilities through advocacy for mandatory accessibility for all AI systems.
Through webinars, training sessions, and workshops on AI, disability rights, and issues like AI in elections, EDF strengthened its members’ advocacy on AI and disability rights. Their AI Policy Officer was also appointed to a Canadian government committee that is developing the world’s first standard on AI and accessibility.
