Good practices for increased autonomy of persons with disabilities, including physical, mental, intellectual and sensory disabilities

Expected Outcome:

Projects should contribute to some of the following expected outcomes (minimum three outcomes):

• Develop innovative evidence-based policy approaches to promote the autonomy of persons with disabilities of any age and any origin of the disability or impairment.
• Develop practices that facilitate the full inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities in different areas of life, including education, family life, employment, living arrangements, leisure, arts, culture and sport on equal basis with others.
• Address the seamless use of accessible and assistive technology, including digital technologies and artificial intelligence, in the community and related services and infrastructure. If possible, identify specific measures and tools for different addressed areas of lives of persons with disabilities, such as education, recruitment, hiring, return to work, and independent life.
• Identify and compare the usefulness of different options for policies and measures aiming to increase the autonomy and quality of life of persons with disabilities, as well as the quality of life and well-being of their families, using a person-centred approach, taking into account the individual needs of persons with disabilities and ensuring their full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on equal basis with others.
• Identify relevant actors to achieve effective results (public actors, civil society organizations, private sector, social economy actors, etc.) and explore their roles and interaction, with a view to assessing integration among different social, support and essential services (including e.g. transport or housing) necessary to promote autonomy and inclusion in the community.

Scope:

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities^[1] recognises the right to individual autonomy and independence for persons with disabilities, including the freedom to make their own choices. Ensuring this right requires a differentiated landscape of measures in all areas of society, including ensuring accessibility and quality person-centred support services.

Having affordable and community-based services and measures in place, which meet the individual needs of persons with disabilities, is a basic pre-condition for autonomy and independence. Social and support services and measures need to be inclusive and accessible for persons with disabilities of any age and with any disability. The proposals may focus on a specific disability or address several of them. Research (including from SSH disciplines) should address barriers and solutions with regard to specific disabilities to increase inclusiveness, decision-making and autonomy, taking into account the integrated and person-centred support provided by families. The role of the family as carers and as the first agent to promote inclusion needs to be addressed. Different solutions for accessible and inclusive housing could also be explored.

A key aspect of the autonomy and independence of persons with disabilities is the access to inclusive education, training, active labour market measures and employment in the open labour market. Promising support practices in these areas should be mapped, analysed and tested, including the integration and communication between different services for a user-centred approach.

European Education Area initiatives such as the Council Recommendation on Pathways to School Success^[2] aim to address equity and inclusion in education. A wide range of actions and peer learning activities aimed at supporting inclusive education are also implemented, in particular through two European Education Area strategic framework Working Groups^[3]: Working Group on Equality and Values in Education and Training and Working Group on Schools – Pathways to School Success.

The proposals should consider the impact – including the impact on the self-esteem of persons with disabilities – of inclusive education versus special needs education or special schools/classes for promoting the autonomy of persons with disabilities. The proposals may also consider the role of special training and lifelong learning adapted to persons with physical, mental, intellectual or sensory disabilities.

New and innovative ways of increasing the autonomy of persons with disabilities need to be explored and tested with the objective to reduce inequalities, promote their full inclusion in society in different areas of life, including education, family life, employment, living arrangements, leisure, arts, culture and sport, and improve their quality of life, as well as the quality of life and well-being of their families. This includes the use of assistive technology and other accessible digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) measures and tools to increase accessibility in society and overall communication, social participation and inclusion of persons with disabilities.

The possible loneliness, impact on emotional well-being and inactivity status of many persons with disabilities needs to be addressed when designing approaches to increase their autonomy and independence. Moreover, the higher risk of persons with disabilities to be exposed to abuse, neglect (including self-neglect), scams and aggression needs to be considered, including when disability is combined (from an intersectional perspective) with other conditions which may be a source of vulnerability (e.g. age, gender, migrant status, discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin). Loneliness and other mental health issues (e.g. burnout) suffered by family carers or other informal carers may be also considered.

Proposals should include civil society engagement and dialogue, for wider input and uptake. Proposals are encouraged to seek synergies and collaboration whenever possible with projects funded under the topic HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-STAYHLTH-01: Improving the quality of life of persons with intellectual disabilities and their families. Where applicable, proposals should leverage the data and services available through European Research Infrastructures federated under the European Open Science Cloud, as well as data from relevant Data Spaces. Particular efforts should be made to ensure that the data produced in the context of this topic is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable).

[1] Article 1 of the Un Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities: Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-persons-disabilities

[2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32022H1209%2801%29

[3] https://education.ec.europa.eu/about-eea/working-groups