• Facilitating the participation of people with disabilities in the various programs of the Union, including Assemblies, meetings, seminars and other events;
• Building accommodation into relevant policies, standards, systems, processes and facilities;
• Employing a variety of ways and means to communicate, and providing information in multiple formats to accommodate diverse needs;
• Identifying and removing barriers to employment, career development and promotion of persons with disabilities, and accommodating individuals when such barriers cannot be removed.

Definition

Policy requirements

As an advocate, with member parliaments, supporting democracy and the institution of parliament:

• Raise awareness of the convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its optional protocol;
• Encourage States to ratify or accede to the Convention and its optional protocol;
• Encourage law makers to translate the convention into national law;
• Promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities;
• Encourage parliamentarians to make society more accessible;
• Encourage parliamentarians to demand periodic reporting;
• Include a perspective on disability in technical assistance projects;

As a convenor of meetings

• As much as possible, choose physically accessible venues;
• Offer live assistance and intermediaries to assist persons with disabilities;
• Remove communications barriers by offering:
  - Sign language interpreters;
  - Assistive listening devices;
  - Transcripts of speeches; or
  - Alternate formats of meeting materials and other information;
  
• Modify policies, practices and procedures to accommodate disabilities;
• Use publicity and pre-registration for planning and ask participants to identify their special needs;
• Ensure staff awareness and sensitivity;
• Enlist cooperation and support of third parties, including host parliaments.

As a provider of public information

• Ensure that the website conforms with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Priority 1 checkpoints and set a longer term goal to reach a higher standard by 2010;
• Promote the availability of publications in multiple formats on request:
  - Audio;
  - Availability on portable electronic storage media;
  - Large Print;
  - On screen Text.
  
• Familiarize all order desks with multiple formats and prepare them for requests;
• Create a full-text template for all publications as publications are first developed;
• For inaccessible exhibitions, another version of the exhibition, such as a video display, shall be provided in an accessible area.

As a facility manager,

• Provide barrier-free access to the Union’s facilities in Geneva and New York;
• Ensure sufficient conditions to guarantee health and safety for all users;
• Document any exemption from accessibility requirements and the rationale for the exemption.

As a potential employer,

• Ensure that the selection process does not discriminate against persons with disabilities, unless the requirement is a bona fide occupational requirement;
• Ensure that employment opportunities are advertised in an accessible format;
• Ensure that assessment methods, including tests and interviews, accurately assess the qualifications required, do not constitute barriers and assess candidates fairly;
• Accommodate individual candidates with disabilities up to the point of undue hardship; and
• Inform all candidates of this policy and the procedure for obtaining accommodation during the staffing process.

As an employer,

• Create and maintain an inclusive, barrier-free work environment that is accessible;
• Identify any barriers to employees with disabilities, and remove those barriers;
• When barriers cannot be removed, efforts will be made to accommodate individual employees with disabilities up to the point of undue hardship, by:
  - providing and paying for technical aids, equipment and services for employees with disabilities as well as repairs to such aids and equipment;
  
• Consult employees with disabilities, including employees with learning disabilities, with respect to:
  - any design, changes or upgrades to physical structures, new or existing systems or equipment so that the workplace is accessible to employees with disabilities, and
  - the planning and design of work-related events and conferences so that all events and opportunities are accessible to employees with disabilities;
  
• Inform all employees of this policy and the procedure for obtaining accommodation.

Implementation and Monitoring