Ferri, Delia
(2015)
Does accessible technology need an ‘entrepreneurial state’? The
creation of an EU market of universally designed and assistive
technology through state aid.
International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 29 (2-3).
p. 137.
ISSN 1360-0869
Abstract
EU State aid law has sought to enable people with disabilities to obtain employment, yet
has not been explicitly included in the toolbox of policy options to improve the
availability and choice of accessible technology within the EU Internal market. This
seems to be the consequence of an inherent bias against State intervention in the
market, which is mostly unwelcome since it can limit open and free competition. This
also reiterates the ‘less-aid’ policy and the purely economic approach to State aid
professed by the European Commission. Against this background, this article
discusses the potential for EU State aid policy to foster both ‘design for all’ and
innovative assistive devices for people with disabilities. It seeks to argue that the goal
of an EU-wide market of accessible technology can be achieved using EU State aid
law. In particular, this article aims to highlight that a more targeted use of EU State
aid law can lead developers to increase the production of accessible goods, to adjust
or reduce prices and to provide consumers with a greater degree of choice in a
greater number of marketplaces. Whilst it adopts a legal approach, this analysis relies
inter alia on economic evidence and recalls the pamphlet recently published by
Mazzuccato, from which the title of this work has drawn inspiration.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
EU state aid law; accessible technology; design for all; assistive technology;
R&D; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Law |
| Item ID: |
8905 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1080/13600869.2015.1055660 |
| Depositing User: |
Delia Ferri
|
| Date Deposited: |
17 Oct 2017 14:13 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
International Review of Law, Computers & Technology |
| Publisher: |
Taylor & Francis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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