How to make public institutions more accessible to the disabled population?

As the European Capital of Culture 2020, Rijeka wants to be an example to other cities in involving people with disabilities and to make interventions in public cultural institutions so as to make their programmes accessible to all the consumers of cultural contents. How to make public cultural institutions more accessible is the key theme of this panel.

Retox Panel: Accessibility and the City consists of two parts – a discourse and a practical part. The discourse part presents examples of good practices from local and international experience, allowing for a space for creating an infrastructure for persons with limited movement in local public institutions. Architects and individuals with disability will inform the wider public about the physical as well as social barriers they encounter every day, and how to provide them with unimpeded access, movement, stay and work. The practical part will take place in a workshop about how to make ramps to be installed in designated public city spaces and in the cultural institutions where such interventions are possible.

A representative body of persons with limited movability or some form of vision, hearing disability, motor or cognitive impairments is going to be presented. The body was formed as a result of work on the Development of Public of RIJEKA 2020. It will advocate the possibilities of inclusion and equality for disabled persons in public spaces in the years after the European Capital of Culture 2020.

The panel will also present the results of the mapping of the accessibility of the cultural institutions in Rijeka, with possible steps and mini interventions that can contribute to the lasting improvement of accessibility. These will also influence further investments in that respect.