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All the leaders from the EU umbrella organisations will meet for the first time in Latvia during the Latvian presidency of the Council of the European Union. The conference will provide an insight into a wider range of opportunities in ICT solutions, ranging from their inclusion in the EU legislation to very practical projects. During the conference there will be an opportunity to get acquainted with the available information about the current situation of persons with disabilities in the EU and Latvia, as well as an insight into the future development perspectives. Special attention will be paid to accessibility to ICT solutions for persons with disabilities and also already existing results in ICT solutions in Latvia.
Gunta Anča, the Chairman of the Board of Latvian Umbrella Body For Disability Organisations SUSTENTO, admits that in Latvia people often hold the view that disability is associated only with the need for social services. Most often the emphasis is on a disability pension or, at best, on employment. We rarely imagine that on a daily basis the ICT solutions that we use, can be an indispensable assistant in such persons' lives, such as navigation system helps blind persons to navigate in a room, smart home’s makes it possible to manage your everyday life for persons with severe physical disabilities, while deaf persons through certain applications are able to use their mobile phones for conversations.
To make the conference available to everyone there will be simultaneous interpretation into Latvian, English and French languages. Conference participants with hearing impairments will be able to follow the presentations with the help of translation into sign language. Also the spoken information will be written on a display.
The conference will be opened by Mr Uldis Augulis, the Minister for Welfare of Latvia, Ms Iveta Grigule, the Member of the European Parliament, representative of the Disability Cooperation Group and Ms Gunta Anča, the Chairman of the Board of Latvian Umbrella Body for Disability Organisations SUSTENTO. The conference brings together 60 representatives from 28 EU countries from the largest organisations for persons with disabilities and the members of the European Commission, as well as 60 representatives of the Latvian organisations for persons with disabilities.
