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Gothenburg wins the 2014 Access City Award

December 16, 2013 Posted in NewsE-mail Print

Gothenburg, Sweden wins the 2014 Access City Award! This makes ENIL especially proud of Erik Ljungberg, a past ENIL board member, who fought a long battle to force Gothenburg to make its public transport system accessible. Gothenburg highlights its accessible public transport in its brochure entitled "The City Accessible for everyone". Today several wheelchair users can use the same tram as a result of Erik's persistent efforts! Erik did not rest when seeing discrimination and barriers to full participation of disabled people.

The award recognizes cities for their efforts to remove barriers in key aspects of everyday life.  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. The Access City Award encourages European cities with at least 50,000 inhabitants to improve accessibility for all citizens. The Award is organized by the European Commission together with the EDF- the European Disability Forum and is presented each year in Brussels during the International Disability Day Celebration. This year the conference was on "Accessible Tourism in Europe".

Other prizes and special mentions for the Access City Award this year included Grenoble, France winning second prize and Poznan, Poland the third prize. Special mentions were awarded to: Belfast, UK, for 'Built Environment and Public Spaces'; Dresden, Germany, for 'Information and Communication Technologies'; Burgos, Spain, for Public Services and Facilities; and Malaga, Spain for Transport and related infrastructures