Christine Albanel, Minister of Culture and Communication, and Valérie Létard, Secretary of State for Solidarity, presided over the annual meeting of the Culture and Disability Commission to reaffirm the resolve of the government to respect the commitments made through the 11 February 2005 Law, to give the greatest possible number of disabled people access to the world of culture.
Christine Albanel and Valérie Létard first reaffirmed that access to culture by disabled persons is neither secondary nor optional and that it is part of their access to full citizenship. Following a long exchange with actors from community, cultural, media-related and administrative groups, the two Ministers particularly insisted on the objectives of achieving accessibility to the built environment and cultural offerings, and on the advances noted in the media and new technology sectors, subjects which were addressed by the President of the Republic at the time of the National Disability Conference of the 10th of June.
Regarding accessibility, departments within the Ministry of Culture and Communication are currently looking at the projects which are making those public cultural establishments which are open to the public, accessible thanks to inter-Ministerial funds for accessibility for the disabled. In this respect, the example of the National Library of France (BNF), presented during the Commission, is representative of a successful partnership.
The Government hopes that the partnership approach between regional Cultural Affairs departments (DRAC) and the regional homes for the disabled (maisons départementales des personnes handicapées – MDPH) regarding access to culture for the disabled, will be strongly developed, giving value to experiences on the ground and the mobilisation of energies, particularly those of community partners.
The introduction of disabled students into cultural higher education institutions will not be forgotten thanks to better recognition of transport costs, the management of competitions and exams, and teaching benchmarks.
These concerns reconnect the wish of the Government to hasten, from 2009, the creation of ‘welcome services’ in universities for disabled students, conforming to the University Disability Charter which was signed in 2007 by the Secretary of State for Solidarity, and the Minister of Higher Education and Research.
These future tasks must not mask the fact that the advances highlighted during the Commission in the area of access to culture for disabled people are numerous and of importance:
- Sub-titling for people with hearing difficulties will be introduced to 100% of television programmes from 2010 and will need to be activated for all televisions being used in public places, or in establishments which welcome the public (airports, cafés, hotels, hospitals)
- Audio-description of television programmes for the visually impaired will be developed thanks to consultation with audiovisual community groups, and a law will later permit a push for major television stations to develop this technique
- The Ministry of Culture and Communication was among the first to make training in accessibility obligatory, during the initial training for the majority of built environment professions, related to the Ministry, from the 1st of January 2009 (DPLG architects, for example)
- Finally, the forthcoming publication of a Decree making access free to sources of works which will be translated into Braille. This will allow a considerable growth in access of visually impaired people to literary works