Inclusion: "Zero Project - Austria Day" shows need for action and solutions | Press service of the Parliamentary Directorate – Parliamentary correspondence, 02/21/2023

Local studies and innovations for the participation of people with disabilities presented in Parliament

Vienna (PK) – Over the next three days, the annual Zero Project Conference is dedicated to the topics of self-determined living and political participation as well as ICT (information and communication technology). These topics were also the focus of the “Zero Project – Austria Day”, which took place in Parliament today in the run-up to the conference. Studies on the representation of people with disabilities in the media and on inclusive voter turnout show that there is still a lot to do. Four projects from Austria were also presented, which offer innovative solutions for more inclusion and self-determined living.

The founder of Zero Project, Martin Essl, was pleased that the event, moderated by Andreas Onea (ORF), was able to take place in this form in the House for the first time.

Sport and charity dominate reporting

Maria Pernegger from MediaAffairs emphasized the important role played by politics, business and the media. Her current media study was about the presence, visibility and staging of people with disabilities in the media and in public discourse.

The media reporting on people with disabilities is essentially limited to just two subject areas: top-class sports for disabled people and charity, explained the author of the study, Pernegger. Both the staging of the hero in one case and the staging of the victim in the other case are problematic, also because the ordinary everyday life of people with disabilities is pushed into the background. So they would not be adequately represented. Many other topics – such as inclusive education and an inclusive labor market or affordable housing – are clearly underrepresented in the reporting. In order to reduce this discrepancy, social awareness must be created, said the author of the study, whereby she held business and politics responsible and called for more factual political context.

Compared to a study from 2015, however, there is also a positive development. Quality media are now more involved in raising awareness, said Pernegger. More reports are now being made about accessibility, access to information or personal assistance, and the proportion of problematic reporting is falling.

In the panel discussion that followed, the results of the study were discussed with a view to raising awareness. Not that much has changed quantitatively, but some things have improved qualitatively, said Elke Niederl from the Ombudsman for Disabled Persons. The study partners: Hans-Jürgen Gross (Wiener Stadtwerke), Michael Freitag (Sodexo) and Petra Pieber (Energie Steiermark) gave exemplary insights into how inclusion is implemented in their companies.

More than just wheelchair ramps: What is needed for barrier-free elections

Political participation by people with disabilities was the focus of the study “Wahl ohne Torment” conducted by Kurt Feldhofer, Cornelia Thonhauser, Christian Fast and Kevin Neubauer of the

Human Rights Research Offices of Lebenshilfe Soziale Diensten GmbH. Because there were no research results on this topic so far, but people with disabilities represent a politically relevant group, the team investigated whether people with disabilities vote and what reasons prevent them from doing so. A participatory approach was chosen. People with and without disabilities researched together in a team.

The survey of 293 people with disabilities in Graz and the surrounding area showed that a quarter of those questioned had never voted. Some study participants did not know that they were allowed to vote or assumed that they were not entitled to vote because of their disability. When asked about the reasons why they did not vote, people most frequently stated that they were not interested, that they received too little information about the election or that they did not feel represented by politicians. Voting frequency was higher among older people with disabilities than among younger people. People living in institutions vote more often than those living with family.

The research team wanted to make the results of the study socially useful. Together with Styrian politics, the research office is now working on making elections more barrier-free. According to the team, this requires more than just wheelchair ramps to polling stations. Above all, it is important to make political content understandable. Information and explanatory videos on elections are therefore produced in simple language.

Four Austrian projects among winners of the Zero Project Awards 2023

This year’s Zero Project Award will also be presented on Thursday as part of the Zero Project Conference. The international community selected 71 winners from over 300 submissions. Four of them come from Austria. These projects were presented in more detail this afternoon by Michael Pichler and Karin Praniess-Kastner from Zero Project Austria in Parliament.

According to Karin Praniess-Kastner, the inclusive Summer Music Week of the Wiener Konzerthaus, which was already presented in the opening event in the morning, perfectly addresses the topic of inclusion in art. It is important for people with disabilities to achieve something, to express themselves artistically and thereby generate attention in society. The avatars of the consultants Unternehmensberatungs GmbH, who can send students with disabilities or chronic illnesses to the classroom on their behalf if they cannot physically participate in class themselves, were also presented as an innovation in the morning. For Michael Pichler, this project shows that technology can achieve a lot and enable inclusion.

A prize will also go to the WAG Assistenzgenossenschaft, which provides personal assistants to people with disabilities in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland. Praniess-Kastner emphasized that the company also employs people with disabilities and thus enables peer-to-peer counseling by and for people with disabilities. Numerous people with disabilities are also employed in the Hotel Wesenufer, which is also one of the award winners. In the Upper Austrian seminar hotel of the association pro mente Upper Austria, 60% of the employees have a disability. Michael Pichler emphasized that people with disabilities work there in all areas of the hotel, from reception to the kitchen to technology.

For Pichler, the Austrian submissions show that the country does not have to hide when it comes to inclusive innovations. All you have to do is think bigger. Incidentally, the next Zero Project Award will focus on education, announced Pichler.

Book launch and reading

The “Zero Project – Austria Day” ended with a reading by the author Cornelia Pfeiffer from her book “So ich habe es aufWRITED”, in which she describes her experiences from 50 years in a facility for people with disabilities. The book was created as part of the Ear Feast Literature Grant 2021/2022 from the Ear Feast Society. The association promotes and conveys the literature of people with disabilities.

Before that, the opening event of the Zero Project Conference took place in Parliament, where solutions and technologies to strengthen the political participation of people with disabilities were presented (see Parliamentary Correspondence No. 181/2023 and Parliamentary Correspondence No. 183/2023). (End Zero Project) fan/kar

NOTE: Photos from this event can be found on Parliament’s web portal.