People with disabilities face physical barriers and behaviors that hinder their full inclusion in society. The number of people with disabilities grows as the population ages. In Europe, society is essentially urban, with four out of five citizens living in towns and cities, and it ages rapidly. For this reason, the European Union promotes equal opportunities and accessibility for people with disabilities and is committed to a strategy aimed at working for a Europe without barriers.
The Accessible City is an award that recognizes cities that have worked to be more accessible to their citizens and promote equitable access to urban life for people with disabilities. The award recognizes and celebrates the willingness, capacity and efforts of a city to be more accessible and guarantee equal access to fundamental rights, improve the quality of life of its population and guarantee that all citizens, regardless of their age , mobility or capacity, have equal access to all the resources and enjoyment that cities have to offer.
The Access City Award is open to all EU cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, urban areas made up of two or more cities with a combined population of more than 50,000 inhabitants if they are located in EU countries with less than 2 cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. The award cannot be won by the same city in two consecutive years.
The cities awarded in previous editions have been Ávila (Spain) in 2011, Salzburg (Austria) in 2012, Berlin (Germany) in 2013, Gothenburg (Sweden) in 2014, Boras (Sweden) in 2015, Milan (Italy) in 2016, Chester (UK) in 2017, Lyon (France) in 2018, Breda (Netherlands) in 2019 and Warsaw (Poland) in 2020. In 2021 the winning city has been Jönköping, in Sweden. Bremerhaven in Germany and Gdynia in Poland took second and third place, respectively. Poznán (Poland), Komotini (Greece) and Florence (Italy) also received special mentions.
The candidatures for the 12th edition of the Accessible City Award closed on September 8th and the winning cities will be announced in a ceremony that will take place on December 3rd and that can be followed online.
ZICLA and accessibility on city streets.
At ZICLA we have been working since 2005 to make city streets more accessible, sustainable, inclusive and friendly.
Our systems and product families help cities meet the challenges of the 21st century by rapidly, sustainably and economically transforming urban space. They make it possible to improve mobility, traffic and accessibility, and they do so by using recycled products.
In particular, our Vectorial® system makes it possible to quickly transform urban space and improve accessibility at bus stops. It also makes it possible to resolve the conflict between bike lanes and bus stops when both coincide, build sidewalks or expand existing ones, and build medians and pedestrian shelters, in a very short time. It is made up of modules that fit together, which allows the construction of very diverse configurations.
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