AEGIS

International Conference

Brussels

29-30 November 2011

THE “ACCESSIBLE ” MAP OF THE CITY OF DRAMA

GREECE

Paraplegics’ Association of Drama

Chair of Paraplegics’ Association of Drama

Katsigianni Aglaia

International Relations Consultant

The city of Drama

Drama is a town and municipality in northeastern Greece. Drama is the capital of the peripheral unit of Drama which is part of the East Macedonia and Thrace periphery. The town has about 52,000 population and is the economic center of the municipality.

The springs of Agia Varvara

An aspect of the city of Drama…

The Paraplegics’ Association of Drama, was established in 1993 and it is based in the city of Drama. It is lodged in the ground – floor of a building granted by the Municipality of Drama, which is used, both, as an office and a meeting place for the members.

One of the associations’ goals is the elimination of constructural and other kind of barriers and the accessibility of all places of public gathering and transportation.

Because the lack of accessibility hurts…

Without accessibility you feel caged…

That’s why we fought all

these years and still keep

fighting for…

Free movement around the city

Making the city’s sidewalks

accessible…

Making public buildings

accessible…

Schools

leisure & sports…

Adapted transportation in the city & Parking Lot…

Considering all the above facilities for people with disabilities living in Drama but for tourists with disabilities also…

we thought, why not let everybody know about it?

The right opportunity came a few years ago, in 2008, through the Greek Ministry of Labor, when we applied for a project for creating an “accessible” map.

We started a campaign by asking all our members, friends, citizens, authorities & shop owners to provide us with any kind of relevant information they had.

We continued by asking the local owners of hotels, restaurants, etc, to make adaptations so, their business will be accessible to customers with physical disability & be promoted in the map.

After we gathered the information we started an… adventure by checking and double checking all the information we had before we put it on map.

And that’s the result…

The “safe to cross” ramps were spotted with a green dot.

The “help needed” ramps were spotted with a red dot.

All the information is provided in greek and english.

The places with adapted bathroom are indicated with green letters and the contrary with red letters.

The map was distributed to several public buildings, hotels, public transportation stations & touristic interest spots.

The Paraplegics’ Association of Drama is providing the map free of charge to anyone who is interested to have it.