A good example on inclusion of people with disabilities in tourism and in cities: the LHAC presented at the Zero Project Conference 2014

Gathering more than 400 participants from all around the world, the Zero Project Conference 2014 is becaming one of the most important event on disability, sharing models that improve the daily lives and legal rights of all persons with disabilities.

With its annual focus on accessibility, this year the Conference took place in UN headquarters in Vienna on 27-28 February 2014.

The Zero Project was initiated by the Essl Foundation in 2010 and runs in partnership with the World Future Council (WFC) since 2011 and with the European Foundation Centre (EFC) since 2013.

The League of Accessible and Historical Cities was showcased in the plenary session "Let’s go accessible: in tourism, in city life", where the recent awarded project was featured under the lenses of the cooperation between FOondazione CRT (Stefania Coni) and Consulta per le Persone in Difficoltá (Alessandro Redavide).

This plenary session was an opportunity to reflect on the important role of accessibility in enabling inclusion of people with disabilities in tourism and in cities. Access provisions in transport, infrastructures, tourism facilities and ICT are relevant to the quality of tourism services for visitors and to the integration of citizens within cities and the urban fabric. Tourism is furthermore an important source of growth for the economy in Europe, representing today some 1.8 million businesses and approximately 9.7 million jobs. The investments made in this field have the potential to generate significant economic benefits, while resulting in greater inclusion and active participation of persons with disabilities in society. Those were the big arguments discussed amongst the panelists.

Introduced by Barbara Berninger (EUROCITIES ) and moderated by Ivor Ambrose (ENAT), decision makers, business leaders and NGOs at regional, national and international levels discussed together and present some of the best practices that have been selected under the Zero Project. Among them the League resultes a successful European example reconciling accessibility measures with tourism and heritage protection, highlighting the potential and the opportunities of accessible tourism within the cities themselves.

Please click HERE for more information about the Zero Project

On the occasion of the Zero Project Conference a short video around the global concept of accessibility has been presented:

http://youtu.be/WV8wpQhBfTc