Access City Awards 2018

Access City Awards 2018

How accessible is your city to people with disabilities? There are always new and innovative ways of making the lives of people with disabilities easier. Every year, the European Commission and the European Disability Forum team up around this issue and award prizes to cities providing the best quantity and quality of access to infrastructures, information, transports, technology, etc.

This year’s winner was the French city of Lyon. Their efforts in building a barrier-free and inclusive environment lead to a full fledge programme which started in 2016, fully dedicated to implementing measures covering culture, education, childhood support, sports, HR, citizenship and public areas. For example, in the area of culture and education, tactile visits of the local theatre are organised with assistive listening devices, libraries re-equipped with over 3,500 audio books and home porter services, and schools receive funds to increase supervisory teams, access to sports and lunchroom.

Inclusive Employment: The Municipality also offers its support from within as their employees follow trainings on disability awareness and it holds itself to a strict minimum of filling 7.8% of the positions with people with disabilities. Companies with good employment records are also given preferential treatment for city contracts.

Technology is also used to break down barriers with the city’s app including functions like an alert for residents to report malfunctioning infrastructure and other useful information.

Would you like to know more? Read more on the other award-winning participants here.