WUF11 – Global Engine for Accessibility Improvement
June 28, 2022
The Roundtable on Persons with Disabilities is a key meeting point for participants working to build inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements. During the World Urban Forum, the Round Table will serve as a space for discussion and exchange of experiences, strategies, tools and activities to implement the New Urban Agenda and the urban dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals, in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Today it has brought together a wide range of stakeholders, including at various levels of government, city practitioners, organizations of persons with disabilities, institutes, academia, and representatives of older adults’ constituencies. Deputy Ministers Bowie and Dovik and Magorzata Jaruيska-Jedinak participated in the discussion.
Including the issue of accessibility in the discussion about trends in urban policy and trends in urbanization processes is indisputable today in the face of the changes we are observing in our societies. The willingness to engage in broad debate is an expression of political leaders’ openness to a paradigm shift in city governance. We also note that this process increasingly involves the cooperation and dialogue of many actors who want the city to be a useful and friendly space.
– She said Jarosinska Jedinak.
It was clear in the discussion that the accessibility of urban space should not be treated as a privilege, but as a right of every human being to: equal and fair treatment of their needs relating to the functioning, organization and management of the space in which they live.
In Poland, we have been trying to emphasize these values more strongly for several years through the extensive activities of the Accessibility Plus program nationwide. In order to achieve it, we create conditions for the systematic inclusion of accessibility in public policies – we are changing the law and also investing in cities so that people with disabilities can feel as independent as possible and pursue their life intentions – from simpler and stagnant such as shopping, to those who build our social standing, such as education good or work
– stressed Jarosinska Jedinak.
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