The EU’s Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021–2030 has driven important progress, including new legislation on the European Disability and Parking Cards and the creation of the AccessibleEU Centre. As the European Commission prepares the next phase of the Strategy, it has launched a public consultation open until 6 February 2026. Autism-Europe welcomes this opportunity and is submitting a response based on the priorities and lived experiences of its members organisations.
You can access Autism-Europe’s position paper here.
Why the consultation matters
The next phase of the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030 comes at a critical moment. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in April 2025 highlighted ongoing discrimination against autistic people in the European Union and called for targeted action. Despite policy advances, autistic people continue to face significant barriers in education, employment, healthcare, independent living, and freedom of movement. Persistent life expectancy gaps, high unemployment, and continued institutionalisation show that progress remains uneven.
The European Commission’s consultation on the next phase of the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is more than a procedural step: it is a vital chance to shape EU disability policy through 2030, ensuring commitments translate into concrete, rights-based improvements. Broad participation will help make autism visible within the Strategy and ensure the European Union and its member states meet their obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Key demands from the autism community
Autism-Europe calls for a more ambitious and targeted next phase of the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that reflects the realities of autistic people across the European Union. Core priorities include:
- Awareness and training: EU-wide initiatives to combat stigma, along with compulsory autism and disability-rights training for professionals, both for autism-specific services, but also across all mainstream public sectors: in education, healthcare, employment, and public services.
- Independent living and community support: promotion of deinstitutionalisation, increased investment in person-centred community services, and stronger monitoring of EU funds to ensure inclusion rather than segregation.
- Supported decision-making: EU-level support for Member States to transition from guardianship regimes to systems respecting autonomy, will, and preferences.
- Freedom of movement and mutual recognition: Harmonised disability assessments and mutual recognition of autism diagnoses across EU countries to ensure full mobility rights.
- Inclusive education and employment: EU action to promote inclusive education, reduce regional disparities, and address the extremely low employment rates of autistic adults.
- Wider enforcement of accessibility: Mainstreaming cognitive, sensory, and communication accessibility, including through a permanent EU Accessibility Agency.
- Participation and accountability: Meaningful involvement of autistic people and representative organisations in Strategy design, implementation, and evaluation, supported by transparent monitoring and data collection.
How to Participate
You can respond to the consultation as an individual or as an organisation (or both!). To submit your response:
- Register and log in to the consultation portal: Provide Feedback to the Call for Evidence
- Select your preferred language.
- Choose to complete one or both parts of the consultation:
- Provide written feedback to the Call for Evidence (short text). You can also upload a position paper. Please feel free to upload the Autism-Europe position paper available at this link, and/or
- Complete the questionnaire
You are not required to do both, but completing both is strongly encouraged.
A wide, engaged response will not only shape the next phase of the Strategy but also send a strong message that disability rights, including the rights of autistic people, matter.
Find the main page to answer the consultation.