The EIB Group develops inclusive and accessible webpages

The EIB Group is an inclusive employer, and to showcase its commitment to more inclusive communications, developed a series of easy-to-read pages on the EIB website.

Created in partnership with Inclusion Europe

The pages include The EIB at a glance, as well as easy-to-read versions of its main pages on climate, development and COVID-19 response.

The pages have short, clear sentences. The sentences are broken up into short lines. That divides them into easily understood chunks of meaning. On the pages the EIB Group uses simple vocabulary, too.

The easy-to-read pages were prepared in collaboration with Inclusion Europe, a Non-Goverment Organization (NGO) that works to support equal rights and full participation in society for people with intellectual disabilities.

Disability inclusive language

The use of inclusive language can have a significant impact on the inclusion of people with disabilities and can contribute to their full participation in our societies and our economies.

Using inclusive language means that the EIB Group can create a truer representation of our diverse society. It is also free from phrases or nuances that reflect prejudiced, stereotypical or discriminatory views towards certain groups of people.

Diversity and inclusion at the EIB

The EIB Group’s commitment to building a diverse and inclusive workplace filters through to its commitment to inclusive language. The EIB Group recognizes that with inclusive language and communication it can foster the participation of diverse talents, skills and abilities in the success of the EU bank, thus making the EIB an organization where people feel they belong.

The EIB is also very sensitive to the words that it uses in its engagement with its staff. When it comes to disability in particular, the EU bank is open to both a person-first (person with disabilities) and an identity-first (deaf person, autistic person) approach to respect the dignity of the individual. As a rule of thumb the EIB Group encourages staff to ask in a non-judgemental and open-minded manner to ask what the individual prefers.

Moreover, there are an estimated 750 000 Deaf Sign Language users in the EU and having some knowledge of even a few of the most common everyday signs can be another open door to inclusive relations in our society. The EIB has held internal events on Sign Language and Sign Language classes will be organized for staff.