Despite the drawbacks and the challenges highlighted by several scholars, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), in particular the World Wide Web, has the potential to foster social inclusion of people with disabilities. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which entered into force in 2008, has illuminated the role technology can play as a tool to promote the human rights of people with disabilities, and their participation and inclusion in society. The UNCRPD has also conceptualized ICT accessibility as a precondition for the enjoyment of rights, prompting a series of reforms in domestic legal frameworks globally and in the European Union (EU). Against this background, this article aims to address the role played by the EU in fostering "digital inclusion", and critically evaluates relevant EU policies and legal rules, locating them within the broader realm of the implementation of the UNCRPD. It pays particular attention to Directive 2016/2102 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies, as well as on the proposal for a European Accessibility Act (EAA). It attempts to show that, while the EU has thus far played an extremely important role in fostering web accessibility, many remaining obstacles must be eradicated to fully ensure access to the web to people with disabilities. This article adopts a doctrinal legal research methodology and is primarily concerned with the analysis of relevant legal rules and related scholarship. In addition, it is informed by a socially-oriented understanding of disability and builds upon the multifaceted and multidisciplinary literature on disability and technology.

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In recent years the European Union (EU) has sought to develop a far-reaching policy regarding persons with disabilities. However, to date, EU non-discrimination legislation does not provide any clear legal definition of what constitutes a disability. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has attempted to fill this gap and, in several decisions, has elaborated on the concept of disability and its meaning under EU law. The CJEU, with reference to the application of the Employment Equality Directive, has explained the notion of disability mainly by comparing and contrasting it to the concept of sickness. Against this background, this article critically discusses recent case law and attempts to highlight that, even though the Court has firmly embraced the social model of disability envisaged by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the boundaries between the concepts of sickness and disability remain blurred.

To date European Union anti-discrimination legislation, particularly the Employment Equality Directive (Directive 2000/78/EC), does not provide any clear definition of disability as a ground of discrimination. In the last few years, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has attempted to fill this gap and discussed the concept of disability in several decisions, in the attempt to provide a definition of the ground of disability. The ratification by the European Union of the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), has led to a clear overruling in the case law: the Court shifted from the medical model to the social model of disability. The UNCRPD now represents a milestone for the CJEU, which recognized that a duty arises to define disability in line with the social model, under the principle of consistent interpretation. Against this background, this article discusses CJEU case law, and compares and contrasts the judicial activism of the Court with the cautious approach adopted by the European Commission in the proposal for a new non-discrimination directive.

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