Disability rights activists have demonstrated in front of the Bundestag buildings. They are demanding that the private sector also be held more accountable. The current government draft contains too few concrete requirements for private companies, according to the criticism.
Social Affairs Minister Bärbel Bas (SPD) emphasized during the first reading that the goal is to remove barriers – but without overburdening companies. The draft stipulates that structural barriers in federal buildings must be eliminated by 2045 at the latest. A competence center for plain language and German Sign Language is also planned. Private companies are to take measures such as mobile ramps in the future, but only if this does not represent a disproportionate and unreasonable burden. Structural changes are explicitly considered disproportionate.
Disability rights activist René Schaar, who co-organized the protest, criticized that the draft does not go far enough. Life does not take place in ministries or authorities. He suspects that the bill was watered down under pressure from Economics Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU). Rául Krauthausen from the association Sozialhelden agreed: In other countries, there are laws that hold the private sector more accountable. The Greens and the Left in the Bundestag also criticize the draft. Even within the black-red coalition, SPD MP Heike Heubach is calling for stronger obligations. The employers’ association BDA, on the other hand, advocated for moderation and support instead of coercion. When the Bundestag will vote on the bill in the second and third readings is not yet known.
Source: www.zdfheute.de
