Changing the Accessibility of Tools for Victims
101056702 – CHAT for Victims
Access to information and effective communication are essential for persons with disabilities victims of crime to participate effectively in criminal justice process. While Directive 2012/29/EU guarantees victims’ rights that aim to prevent secondary victimisation, existing means of support are usually hard to access or are completely inaccessible to persons with disabilities. So, the project “CHAT for Victims” is created to facilitate access to information and support for victims of crime with disabilities.
The two-year project is implemented between 2022 July and 2025 April in 4 EU countries: Croatia, Romania, Slovenia and Spain. The project consortium includes:
- Victims and Witness Support Service Croatia, from Croatia (project coordinator)
- Centrul de Resurse Juridice from Romania
- Colegio Oficial de la Psicologia de Madrid from Spain
- Pravni center za varstvo človekovih pravic in okolja from Slovenia
- Validity Foundation from Hungary
- Victim Support Europe from Belgium
Project Objectives
- Provide equal access to justice and information for all victims of crime by developing a chat-based online support tailored to the needs of persons with disabilities.
- Lay the foundation for providing comprehensive online support via live chat service by conducting research on how to make chat service more accessible.
Implementation Methods
- Conducting research to understand challenges and experiences on providing remote support via online live chat for persons with disabilities. This will tell us how to provide remote services based on instructions of persons with disabilities;
- Developing the capacities of key national professionals in delivering remote support through live chat services. This is based on information and guidance drawn from a handbook on providing remote support, which will support training of professionals;
- Developing and implement a live chat service to support victims and witnesses of crimes;
- Validity ensures, at an international level, a panel of recognised experts with and without disabilities provides quality assurance for our project outcomes.
Project Outcomes
An important outcome of the project is an international brief on universal design and victim support service, which will set out principles and guidelines on how victim support systems and digital systems should be accessible to enable any person with disabilities to use them.
Live chat systems developed in this project will also provide more opportunities for persons with disabilities to have access to the information and support they need to have access to justice. It should also become an important example of how to incorporate digital systems and assistive technology in a way that promotes right to legal capacity of persons with disabilities.
Full Name of the Project
Changing the Accessibility of Tools for Victims (101056702- CHAT for Victims- JUST-2021-JACC).
This project is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.