PRESS RELEASE
Through ACCESS4ALL’s App & training modules we will be cultivating practices of inclusion for all citizens and providing a safe space for knowledge sharing to progress us into a society with accessibility for all.
During the beginning of November 2021, the 4th and 5th to be exact, ACCESS4ALL held its first international meeting in Vienna, Austria. Our partners from Italy, Cyprus, Spain and Greece joined together in compliance with all Austrian COVID-19 rules and regulations, for an in-person meeting to discuss the research and development of our project. If you have not heard of our project before, here is a quick introduction:
We are a consortium of organizations all over the EU joined together under the mission and objectives of ACCESS4ALL. ACCESS4ALL supports a holistic and integrated approach to the capacity building of the comprehensive pillars involved with the integration of disabled people.
How is the project supporting the integration of disabled people?
Towards the end of September 2022 ACCESS4ALL will introduce an online training for teachers, policy makers, local administrative staff, social workers, etc, to broaden their knowledge regarding what an important group of their constituents, persons with disabilities, may require in order to better serve them. Our modules touch on subjects such as international policies about accessibility, emotional intelligence, mainstreaming disability, potentiality of an inclusive society and more. It is important as a policy maker or an influential person to understand the situation which people with disabilities are currently experiencing, where progress has been reached and where we could improve. After the completion of the modules each participant should have gained a more comprehensive knowledge base on how to better accommodate people with disabilities. Each participant will be awarded a certificate upon completion of the modules.
Our training modules are just one part of the ACCESS4ALL project, the second part is knowledge sharing. We have spent the past months gathering data on good practices for inclusion from each project participant. Our partners in Austria found that the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien is introducing tours especially coordinated for people with visual impairments; our tour was led by Mrs. Krall. In Spain, they
have started initiatives such as Inclusive Finance, aimed at promoting financial education for people with intellectual disabilities and learning difficulties. In France, they’ve introduced Hello Handicap, the first digital recruitment fair (on the internet and on mobile phones) dedicated to people with disabilities. In Greece, the institution of Personal Assistant for people with disabilities was established for the first time in October 2021 to enhance their independent living. The program will be implemented on a pilot basis from 2022. There are many good practices throughout the EU and ACCESS4ALL will be gathering more information and providing a point of reference on their website where we could work together and learn from each other.
ACCESS4ALL will be helping the integration of people with disabilities into local societies by creating training modules and providing updated information on practices that are being developed and shared by EU countries. ACCESS4ALL is working to be the meeting point for collaboration, knowledge sharing and an open end source of information in order to practically enhance the life quality of citizens with disabilities and foster an inclusive society.
