San Cristóbal de la Laguna, in Tenerife, won this Friday the Accessible City 2024 award from the European Union, for its commitment to improving the quality of life of people with disabilities and their “great efforts” to ensure that its public spaces and transport services are inclusive and accessible.
At the awards ceremony, held today in Brussels, the European Commission highlighted that all vehicles and stations on the city’s tram network are “fully accessible” and that the city center has acoustic traffic lights and tactile pavement to guide people with visual disabilities.
The Accessible City award has been held since 2010 and recognizes the commitment, efforts and actions to ensure accessibility to urban life, especially for people with disabilities and elderly citizens. In practice, This refers to promoting accessibility in buildings, in public transport, in facilities and services, as well as in information and communication technologies.
The European Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli, who presented this first award, recalled that “too often” people with disabilities have to face multiple barriers that prevent them from “fully” experiencing life in their cities.
“Accessibility is integral to achieving an inclusive society since it is a facilitator of rights and autonomy,” highlighted Dalli, who advocated that political authorities, in the current context of green and digital transition, design urban spaces where accessibility is in the center for building cities “resilient and sustainable.”
The Councilor for Social Welfare and Quality of Life of the La Laguna City Council, María Leonor Cruz, highlighted to EFE after collecting the award that the city has been working on accessibility since 2019 to guarantee that all citizens of the municipality can enjoy the services.
The coordinator of the municipality’s Dependency and Disability unit, Pilar Herrero, added that this award is “a boost to move forward, consolidate the services we have, continue fighting and have the challenge of accessibility in the municipality.”
Herrero explained that the City Council has implemented numerous services with the aim of making life easier for people with disabilities in leisure, culture and in everything social, and that it has developed “countless” projects regarding accessibility.
The city of Lódz (Poland) came in second place for the application of global guidelines to ensure accessibility standards in all municipal investments, and the municipality of Saint-Quentin (France) came in third place for improving the accessibility of the network of public transport.
County Dublin South (Ireland) also received a special mention to recognize its commitment to accessible play areas.