'It's not true that everything should be adapted'

Quality of life for a disabled man in the EU capital, the fountainhead of Europe-wide laws and standards, depends more on basic human values than on legislation.

Erik, a 41-year-old Dutch language teacher, became a wheelchair-using tetraplegic on 4 May 2007 when he lost control of his car on the motorway. He smashed his head into the roof of the vehicle as it flipped over, breaking the C6 vertebra in his neck and cutting his spinal cord in two.

The European Commission building in...