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Galway City Council and the Barcelona Declaration
The Barcelona Declaration is about ensuring that all people, regardless of ability or disability, can have access to, and influence over the city’s services and facilities.
The Barcelona Declaration Adopted by Galway City Council on 13th May 2002, and having regard to the responsibilities of the Council as a local authority, the following goals were agreed:
- Ensuring a high level of awareness among staff
- Promoting and ensuring participation by disabled people in decision-making
- Ensuring access to information
- Promoting universal access to urban spaces, buildings and services
- Encouraging and facilitating access to housing
- Improving mobility of disabled persons throughout the city
- Promoting co-ordination between service providers via the City Development Board
- Promoting and actively encouraging equal opportunities for people with a disability to participate in all aspects of city life
- Promoting the inclusion of universal access principles in the public policy process.
An inhouse project team was established, and each year, the team prepared a specific programme of actions for achieving the goals.
While this was a voluntary initiative on the part of the Council, the enactment of the Disability Act has resulted in national funding being allocated to local authorities since 2005, to support their activities in improving access, and making services and facilities accessible
In addition, the Council has benefitted considerably from liaising with local disability groups, through the Access for All Group and the Community Forum, in order to ensure that our actions were addressing the priorities as identified by the groups.
To date, significant progress has been made in upgrading pedestrian and street crossings, in improving access to City Hall and to the city’s outdoor amenities, and in promoting and securing accessibility and lifetime adaptability in new housing.
In addition, the Council has provided awareness and training sessions to staff, and , together with Galway City Partnership, was successful in securing a government commitment to introduce a Disability Access Certificate, which is likely to ensure greater compliance with the access provisions of the Building Regulations.
In 2006, the focus is on improving opportunities for people with disabilities to secure employment and training opportunities, and on working with other local authorities to develop best practice and learn from successful initiatives elsewhere.