EU.POLIS

EUVATOS POLIS (Accessible city)

A project funded by the Municipality of Thessaloniki (Greece)

Project description 

The main problem addressed through the EU.POLIS project was the lack of accessibility, for people with disabilities and people with restricted mobility in general, at the municipal buildings of the Municipality of Thessaloniki.
 
The project’s actions included:

  1. Recording of the existing situation of the services offered by the Municipality of Thessaloniki to students with disabilities. Furthermore, a presentation of the different categories of disability according to ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health) was made. As far as transportation is concerned, the specialized transport services for people with disabilities operated by the Municipality and the local public transport provider (OASTh) were presented.
  2. A checklist for the evaluation of municipal buildings was created in order to provide the Municipality with a useful tool which takes into account the varying needs of people with restricted mobility.
  3. Creation of a handbook combining the Greek accessibility guidelines, international guidelines when these do not suffice as well as technical solutions available.
  4. Presentation of good practices on policy level followed by Municipalities.
  5. Evaluation of the infrastructure and services offered to citizens with disabilities at seventeen municipal buildings.
  6. Training actions concerning accessibility as well as behaviour of the Municipality’s employees towards citizens with disability.

Final beneficiaries of the project included: 

  1. People with disabilities and people with restricted mobility in general, as the project’s actions led to actions on accessibility improvement and raised awareness on accessibility issues.
  2. Engineers, who had the chance through the project’s seminars to acquire knowledge on Universal Design, and how to overcome design obstacles.
  3. Municipal technical services employees, for whom design tools adjusted to their particular needs were created.

Deliverables:

  • D1.1a: Evaluation of existing situation (population – transportation)
  • D1.1b: Creation of a checklist for the evaluation of Municipal buildings
  • D1.1c: Results of the evaluation of Municipal buildings
  • D1.2a: Handbook of accessibility guidelines and available solutions
  • D1.2b: Best practices realized by Municipalities at international level
  • D2.1: Evaluation of the accessibility of Municipal buildings It should be noted that, during the project, final studies were completed by the technical services of the Municipality with the cooperation of TSRG for the improvement of the accessibility offered by five municipal buildings. The interventions proposed are under implementation. 

Project Partners 

  • AUTh: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) 
  • MT: Municipality of Thessaloniki (Greece)