EC (2011a): EUROPEAN COMMISSION – EC. Access City Award 2011: Making Europe’s urban environment accessible for all. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2011. 17p. Disponível (em inglês) para baixar em: internet-EC. Acesso em: 3 ago. 2019.

Comentário: na 1ª edição do prêmio Access City Award (2011) concorreram 66 cidades de 19 países da União Europeia, tendo sido premiadas:

• 1º lugar para Ávila (Espanha)
• demais finalistas: Barcelona (Espanha), Colônia (Alemanha) e Turku (Finlândia)

trechos:

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Inaugural Award: Access • City 2011

In the inaugural edition of the Award launched in 2010, some 66 European cities from 19 EU Member States put themselves forward as candidates.
The winner was selected by a European Jury chaired by Paralympic champion Mark Ecclestone, supported by a team of specialists in the main of accessibility areas.

The four finalists for the first edition of the Access • City Award were Ávila (Spain), Barcelona (Spain), Cologne (Germany) and Turku (Finland).

Ávila was selected as the winner on account of its comprehensive plan, the high level of political commitment, the progress achieved so far, and the effective involvement of people with disabilities in the process.

It is a medieval city with a challenging environment where accessibility has become a core issue running through all municipal policies and applied to all spheres of society including town planning, building, communication and transport.

The other three finalists have similarly developed comprehensive plans to address accessibility in the competition’s four areas.

The Award ceremony
The Award ceremony took place in Brussels on 2nd December 2010 within the context of the European Day of People with Disabilities Conference, held in the presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid of Belgium, Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission, Jean-Marc Delizée, Belgian Secretary of State for Social Affairs, and Yannis Vardakastanis, President of the European Disability Forum.

The ceremony was moderated by the wellknown Dutch presenter, Lucille Werner, who in past five years has designed and hosted successful television formats about people with disabilities demonstrating their skills and talents. With her entertainment shows, Lucille Werner has contributed to give a new dimension to the image of people with disabilities in Holland.

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The Access • City Award initiative: goals and actions

The Access • City Award is an innovative competition between European cities, launched in 2010 to promote accessibility in the urban environment
for people with disabilities.

It is about ensuring equal access to city life for people with disabilities. The Award is given to the city that has demonstrably and sustainably improved accessibility in fundamental aspects of city living, and that has concrete plans for further improvements. The Award covers actions in the areas of:

• the built environment and public spaces;
• transport and related infrastructures;
• information and communication, including Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs); and
• public facilities and services.

The Access • City Award aims to encourage cities to inspire one another to innovate and to share good practices. Many solutions for improving accessibility can be seen in those forward-thinking cities that demonstrate commitment and innovation in making the urban environment accessible for all. By means of a friendly competition, cities across the European Union are invited to become role models for one another and be inspired to
take on more accessibility initiatives.

Accessibility is a cornerstone of inclusion
For a society based on equal rights, a barrier-free environment is a key to providing its citizens with autonomy, freedom of choice and the means to pursue an active social and economic life. For people with disabilities, elderly people, and those with reduced mobility or other types of temporary impairments, environmental barriers result in a high risk of marginalization, exclusion and discrimination.

Accessibility is therefore essential for them to exercise their fundamental rights and to fully participate in society. The right to education or to engage in work, voting rights, access to documents, freedom of movement, access to leisure and cultural facilities such as libraries, theatres, hotels and restaurants, etc., can only be enjoyed by people with disabilities if their environment – with its buildings and public spaces, transport services and infrastructure, information services and related technology – is accessible to them.

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European Jury
[…]

Regular annual event
Following the success of the first edition of the Access • City Award, it is becoming a regular annual competition to encourage progress towards making our cities more accessible for all.