Four common beliefs about disability

In 2024, 23.9% of people aged 16 or over in the European Union had a disability, according to Eurostat. Most of these disabilities are not visible, and most are not present from birth. They can appear after an accident, an illness or a stroke.

Yet disability is still often seen as a rare, personal and medical situation. A step at the entrance of a shop, a website that does not work with a screen reader or a job offer that ignores different needs can turn a difference into exclusion.

Many people still believe that disability is only a personal condition, that digital tools are accessible to everyone, that hiring people with disabilities is a cost or that isolation is a private matter.

Belief 1: "Disability is a personal condition"

Verdict: Mostly false.

The facts

A person may have an impairment. But it is often the environment that creates a disabling situation. In France, a law adopted in 2005 required buildings open to the public to become accessible. Twenty years later, only half of the built environment complies with these rules, according to Sylvain Denoncin, president of Okeenea.

Accessibility does not only help people with disabilities. Older people, people with temporary injuries, parents with pushchairs and travellers with luggage also benefit from it.

Change the environment, not the person

Okeenea develops smartphone guidance solutions that help people find their way in train stations, hospitals and campuses. "The environment creates the disabling situation," says Sylvain Denoncin. According to him, nearly 12 million people live with a disability in France, and 80% of disabilities are invisible. "One French person in two will be affected by a disability during their life." He expects artificial intelligence and voice interfaces to give people even more autonomy.

Learn from people who need different solutions

Simon Houriez is the founder and director of Signes de Sens in France. The association helps organisations make spaces, experiences and content more accessible, from buses to museum websites and teaching methods. For Houriez, a specific need often reveals an improvement that helps everyone. Text messages were first introduced to help deaf people communicate. Subtitles are another example. "The problem is that we want to give to disability, instead of investing in disability and investing in other people," he says.

Make every journey easier to plan

Evy Saba Ouyabe Zuinghedau is the founder and CEO of Universal Wings Mobility. Her artificial intelligence tool, AVI, helps people with disabilities, older people and carers check whether a hotel room, a swimming pool or a cinema is accessible. "When you need a ramp to get onto a bus, it takes a lot of energy," she explains. For her, the remote control is a good example: it was first necessary for some people, and today nobody can imagine living without it.

Elsewhere on impact.info

• Grégory Cuilleron (France). The chef explains why difference should be seen as the norm.
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• Ivès (France). Pascal Dupuy explains why he created a call centre for deaf people.
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• Fundación Mutua de Propietarios (Spain). Cristina Pallàs explains why investing in accessible housing is urgent.
  Why Invest to Accelerate Housing Accessibility?

Belief 2: "Digital tools are accessible to everyone"

Verdict: False.

The facts

In 2025, 94.8% of the top one million home pages had detectable accessibility failures, with an average of 51 errors per page, according to the WebAIM Million study. People with visual, hearing, motor or cognitive disabilities therefore cannot fully use many online services.

Technology can also be too expensive. Many people who need a prosthesis or an assistive device cannot afford one.

Teach accessibility from the start

Marion Ranvier is the managing director of the Contentsquare Foundation. "We realised that students who want to work in digital jobs are almost never trained in digital accessibility," she says. The foundation offers higher education institutions a free two-hour online course. It also trains companies and offers an immersive experience that simulates different disabilities. For the foundation, accessibility should be part of the design process from the beginning.

Give each person information in the format they need

In western France, the sensory and language unit of VYV3 supports young people with hearing or visual impairments. With them, the team developed SENS, a free app covering eight areas such as health, housing, employment and legal rights. A deaf user can read content in French Sign Language. A blind user can choose the visual impairment profile. "If we make the environment accessible, the disability can sometimes disappear," says deputy director Freddy Halet.

Print assistive devices at low cost

Guillermo Gauna-Vivas is the founder of Ayúdame 3D, a Spanish NGO. The project started in Kenya, where he delivered his first 3D-printed arms. The organisation now designs, prints and sends prostheses free of charge. More than 700 people have received a prosthesis directly, and more than 20,000 people have received support through other devices. "It has changed their lives because they can become more independent," he says.

Elsewhere on impact.info

• Supergiz (Spain). Luis Carlos González Fernández explains why patients should help design their own prostheses.
  Why Involve Patients in the Design of Their Own Prosthetics?

Belief 3: "Hiring people with disabilities is a cost"

Verdict: False.

The facts

In 2024, the employment gap between people with and without disabilities in the EU was 24 percentage points, according to Eurostat. Unemployment among people with disabilities remains twice the national average in France, according to H-up Entrepreneur.

At the same time, many sectors face a shortage of skilled workers.

Connect candidates and employers

Jane Hatton founded Evenbreak after she became disabled herself. The organisation describes itself as the only global job board dedicated to disabled candidates. It helps candidates find jobs and helps employers find candidates. It also works to reduce prejudice, including towards people living with conditions that employers may fear.

Build a company around inclusion

afb social & Green IT refurbishes used IT equipment. It has more than 20 sites in five European countries and 650 employees, almost half of them with disabilities. The company is profitable. "If you take inclusion seriously and put it into practice properly, it pays off," says CEO Daniel Büchle. In 2025, according to Büchle, refurbishing hardware avoided about 70,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. In an internal survey, 60% of employees with disabilities said their lives had improved since they joined.

Turn cognitive diversity into creativity

José María Batalla founded La Casa de Carlota, a design studio in Spain that works with designers with Down syndrome, autism and other intellectual disabilities. "The team becomes more creative and richer when you add more different brains," he says. Work with brands such as Nestlé, Nike and L'Oréal helped change how clients see disability: as a source of creative value.

Support entrepreneurs with disabilities

Pauline Arnaud Blanchard co-founded H-up Entrepreneur with four business leaders with disabilities. In France, 80,000 business owners with disabilities are active, and 8,000 people with disabilities start a business every year, according to her. H-up provides coaching, training and mentoring, and relies on a network of 3,000 entrepreneurs who act as role models.

Elsewhere on impact.info

• Grupo Sifu (Spain). Albert Campabadal Blanco explains why the employment of people with disabilities is urgent.
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• Asprodalba (Spain). Pedro de Haro Orozco explains how employment changes the way society sees disability.
  Why does labor insertion change the social perception of disability?

• TH Conseil (France). Guy Tisserant explains why disability at work can go with high performance.
  Why Being Disabled at Work Equals Super Performance?

Belief 4: "Isolation is a private matter"

Verdict: False.

The facts

According to a study by the Fondation de France cited by Simon de Cyrène, 32% of people with disabilities feel lonely every day or almost every day. This is 10 percentage points more than in the general population.

Children are also affected. In France, between 100,000 and 300,000 children with disabilities cannot attend school, according to Jérôme Stioui. Their families can become isolated too.

Share a home to reduce loneliness

Simon de Cyrène runs shared homes where people with and without disabilities live together. In Lyon, eleven people share a 500-square-metre space. Their lives changed after a car accident, a stroke or a brain injury present from birth. Each resident has a private studio. Only the living room and terrace are shared. "People with and without disabilities live together, share positive experiences and reduce loneliness," says director Laetitia Jousse.

Give children a place to learn and play

Jérôme Stioui and his wife opened Le Village des Enfants Extraordinaires near Paris in 2023. Children with disabilities can learn through play and creative activities, and families can spend time together. At the time of the interview, 60 families attended the centre and 400 were on the waiting list. "When you find something that your child likes, you can create a spark," he says.

Elsewhere on impact.info

• Amouti Autisme (France). Anne-Gabrielle Roche explains why parents of autistic children need support.
  Why Support Parents of Autistic Children?

• Caracol (France). Simon Guibert explains how solidarity housing helps fight discrimination.
  How Solidarity Housing Helps Combat Discrimination

What they have in common

The four beliefs share one point: they see disability as a personal problem. The 12 initiatives in this dossier show that many barriers come from the environment, and that they can be removed.

They change places, transport and digital tools, so that more people can use them.

They see people with disabilities as employees, entrepreneurs and creators, not only as people who need help.

They create places where people can live, learn and meet, so that disability does not lead to isolation.

These initiatives come from France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom. They respond to challenges shared across Europe. Many more can be discovered on impact.info.

When the environment changes, many barriers disappear, for people with disabilities and for everyone else.