On the occasion of the European Day for people with disabilities (3 December) the European Commission announced that Gothenburg is the winner of the Access City Award 2014. Gothenburg’s commitment to increasing accessibility to transport, housing, work and employment is a good example that other European cities could follow in the future. Priority is given to people with disabilities when accessible homes become available.
On the employment front, some 300 workplaces are being equipped with personal aids each year. The city is also systematically working on improving public facilities, with concrete actions to make amusement parks, playgrounds and the local university more accessible.
The second prize went to Grenoble (France) and the third to Poznan (Poland) – both cities having exhibited remarkable progress in terms of accessibility to transport, education, accommodation, shopping, culture, sports, tourism and employment.
The special mentions are given to:
- Belfast, United Kingdom, for ‘Built Environment and Public Spaces’
- Dresden, Germany, for ‘Information and Communication Technologies’
- Burgos, Spain, for Public Services and Facilities
- Malaga, Spain for Transport and related infrastructures
The Access City Award was launched in 2010 to raise awareness of disability and promote accessibility initiatives in European cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. In a first selection round at the national level 102 cities from 23 Member States applied for the competition. National juries were composed of persons with disabilities and public administration experts and they could choose up to three cities to nominate for the European selection round. The European Jury composed of accessibility experts and representatives of the European Disability Forum and the Age Platform Europe selected the winner, the second and the third prize as well as the four special mentions.
Read more about Access City Award at http://ec.europa.eu/justice/events/access-city-award-2014/index_en.htm