EMEA News Q4 2026

EMEA Calls for Recognition of Environmental Accessibility as a Shared Disability Rights Principle

Why Environmental Accessibility Matters

For many people with disabilities and chronic health conditions, everyday environments can become barriers to participation and, in some cases, cause physiological harm.

Noise, bright or flickering lighting, fragrances, cleaning chemicals, temperature instability and overcrowding can make healthcare facilities, workplaces, public transport and other essential services inaccessible.

These barriers are often regarded as matters of comfort or personal preference. Yet, for some people, environmental exposure can cause significant health deterioration or prevent them from accessing essential services.

Environmental Accessibility means ensuring that sensory, chemical and other environmental exposures do not become barriers to health, safety, dignity or equal participation.

This approach is grounded in the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which recognises that disability results from the interaction between impairments and environmental barriers.

Accessibility should be determined by functional need, rather than by diagnosis, visibility, permanence or prognosis.

About this article

EMEA is inviting organisations across disability communities to endorse its position statement on Environmental Accessibility. This article explains why environmental barriers matter, why they are a shared concern across disability communities, and how EMEA plans to develop practical requirements in partnership with others.

Endorse the position statement

A Shared Challenge Across Disability Communities

The initiative originated from EMEA's work on the environmental barriers experienced by people living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), sometimes referred to as ME/CFS.

However, similar challenges affect people with a wide range of conditions, including autism, migraine disorders, multiple sclerosis, vestibular disorders, acquired brain injury and sensory processing disorders.

Although individual needs may differ, these communities share a common concern: environments that are not adapted to their functional needs can prevent safe and equal participation.

Environmental Accessibility is not intended to belong to any single diagnosis or community. EMEA is therefore inviting organisations across disability communities to support recognition of Environmental Accessibility as a shared accessibility principle.

EMEA's immediate objective is to encourage recognition of environmental barriers within accessibility and disability inclusion policies.

Endorsing the EMEA position statement means recognising Environmental Accessibility as a shared principle, and that environmental barriers deserve to be addressed within accessibility frameworks through inclusive, rights-based policies developed in partnership with affected communities.

Looking Ahead: Building the Initiative Together

Recognition of Environmental Accessibility is only the first step.

EMEA is also developing a draft framework on Environmental Accessibility Requirements (EAR), intended to translate this shared principle into practical recommendations for healthcare, workplaces, education, public services and other environments.

The framework will need to reflect the diversity of environmental accessibility needs across disability communities, ensuring that measures benefiting one group do not unintentionally create barriers for another.

EMEA welcomes expressions of endorsement from organisations who support these efforts in creating environments that enable safe access, dignity and equal participation for all.

Endorse the Position Statement

The Invitation

Read the invitation from the EMEA Executive Committee to organisations to endorse the EMEA position statement on Environmental Accessibility.

Read the EMEA Executive Committee invitation

Add Your Support

Organisations that wish to endorse the position statement can add their support by email. The button below opens a pre-filled email listing the details EMEA needs. Please attach your organisation's logo to the email.

Add your organisation's support

Alternatively, email info@europeanmealliance.org with the subject "Endorsement of the EMEA Position Statement on Environmental Accessibility", and attach your organisation's logo. Details are used only to record and display your endorsement.