Shaping Inclusive Futures: The EU's Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The EU's Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030 sets a transformative agenda for accessibility, equality, and inclusion. In her address to the IIEA, Inmaculada Placencia Porrero, Senior Expert in Disability and Inclusion at DG Employment, Social Affairs, and Inclusion at the European Commission, explores the strategy’s achievements, challenges, and alignment with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Drawing on her pivotal role in the creation of the European Accessibility Act and recent election to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Inmaculada reflects on Europe’s leadership in disability policy and its implications for innovation, cross-sector collaboration, and the advancement of these rights globally. About the Speaker: Inmaculada Placencia Porrero is a Senior Expert in Disability and Inclusion at Directorate-General (DG) Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at the European Commission. Her unit is responsible for the coordination of European policies for persons with disabilities. She works on European disability policies including the European Disability Strategy and the EU implementation of the UNCRPD. Inmaculada has worked on research programmes addressing accessibility as well as assistive technologies and has been Deputy Head of Unit for various disability-related units in the Commission. Her work in the "e-Inclusion" unit of the DG for Information Society and Media addressed accessibility policy. While at the DG for Justice and Consumers, she contributed to disability-related antidiscrimination legislation. She was responsible for the task force for the preparation of the European Accessibility Act and remains responsible for it since the Act's adoption in 2015. Currently, under the DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, she leads the team working on the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030. In June 2024, she was elected as a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.