Study assessing the implementation of the pilot action on the EU Disability Card and associated benefits

Persons with disabilities are known to participate less in many societal aspects, such as culture, leisure, sport, and travelling, not just due to environmental barriers but also due to economic constraints. For these reasons, within the wider Disability Strategy 2010-2020, the European Commission launched a pilot action in 8 Member States (Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Malta, Romania, and Slovenia) that introduced an EU Disability Card.
In these Member States, persons with disabilities can ask for the Card and with it have access to free or discounted entrance in the culture, leisure, sport, and transport sector, in their home country and in the other participating Member States. Both participation of persons with disabilities and of service providers in the sectors in scope is voluntary.
The main purpose of the EU Disability Card study is to assess the implementation of the pilot action in each Member States, the benefits produced, its cost-efficiency, and its transferability in the rest of the EU.
The context analysis is carried out using publicly available datasets from Eurostat, whereas the information on costs and benefits is retrieved with interviews with stakeholders, as well as online surveys administered to the managing authorities of each Member State, the service providers participating, and the Card holders.
Specific cases studies are carried out to highlight good and bad practices among the different Member States with the use of focus groups.
The Study assessing the implementation of the pilot action on the EU Disability Card and associated benefits is funded by European Commission – DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Unit C3 – Disability and Inclusion and Unit G4 – Evaluation and Impact Assessment.