International Day of Persons with Disabilities: the City of Geneva develops universal accessibility

In Switzerland, 18% of the population over the age of 15 find themselves forced to cope with functional motor, sensory, mental or psychological limitations. Across the Canton, this represents some 70,000 people, 35,000 of whom live in the City of Geneva. Many of them are old and suffer from age-related health problems.

The handicaps to which these people are subject can nevertheless be alleviated if their environment is made more agile and accessible. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities defines universal accessibility as the design of products and services to be usable by all people without the need for adaptation or specialised design.

Since 2019, against this backdrop, the City of Geneva has developed a cross-cutting policy of universal accessibility designed to ensure greater inclusion of handicapped people in the life of the City. The current health situation and resulting measures – wearing a mask and protective gestures – represent a constraint for certain people in their day-to-day life. “This situation highlights the different realities and difficulties linked to universal accessibility. To plan a city adapted to its inhabitants, the City of Geneva has reasserted its desire for dialogue, calling on the expertise of the relevant associations,” states Frédérique Perler, who is responsible for the Department of Planning, Building and Mobility.

Associative platform

On 3 December 2020,the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, an associative platform was launched with the aim of accompanying the municipal programme of universal accessibility. This platform, which brings together 10 associations active in the field of disabilities and accessibility, is tasked with relaying the needs of users and making proposals.

Project Access + 

An app developed by Pro Infirmis Suisse will assess the accessibility of 180 municipal points of interest, such as public buildings and parks. This information will be available on the City’s website. Handicapped people will thus be able to prepare their visits in advance, benefiting from a clearer vision of the characteristics of their chosen destination

Awareness among municipal staff

A new vision of the different disabilities to which people are subject is just as important to those concerned as the removal of architectural barriers. That is why training modules were launched in 2020 with a view to increasing awareness among municipal staff. These training modules are provided by trainers concerned by handicaps and by experts in this field.

Christina Kitsos underlines the need to develop a genuine reflex within the administration in favour of accessibility in the broadest sense of the word. “I am thinking not only of public buildings and their surroundings, but also of the means of welcoming and accompanying handicapped people who make use of the municipal services.”

Municipal charter of universal accessibility

Finally, the City of Geneva has drawn up a document indicating the guidelines for its policy of universal accessibility, which serves as a reference for the administration as a whole.

On the programme for 2021 and beyond 

The awareness activities will continue among the municipal staff and will be extended to the general public. Particular attention will be paid to any new service, event or construction with regard to its accessibility. Citizen participation and the exercise of civic rights will also be encouraged by a raft of measures designed to help those people concerned.