Access City Award 2021 - Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion

Application form

Welcome and thank you for your interest in the ACA 2021 application process. To help with your application please bear in mind the points below:

• Applications must be submitted by online registration only on the application web page.

• The indicated maximum number of characters available for each reply includes spaces.

• Application forms must be completed preferably in English, but all the other EU official languages will also be accepted. No other languages will be accepted.

• Only applications complying with the eligibility criteria will be accepted.

• Before filling in the form, please carefully read the accompanying guidance note and the participation rules, which you can read in all the EU official languages.

• The secretariat is available to help you to clarify questions related to filling in the forms. Linguistic quality is not important for the evaluation of your application and it is the content of your activities on accessibility that will be decisive for your chances of winning the award.

Application form

(56 Kb) Rules of Contest

(126 Kb)

Guidance Notes

(190 Kb)

Your application should be written as clearly and concretely as possible so the national and European jury will be able to appreciate your efforts in the area of accessibility. Please focus on facts and numbers. Whenever it is possible give examples including qualitative and quantitative data. Make sure that you have clearly presented your approach and strategy in accessibility and that you have underlined all innovative and extraordinary activities that led you to success in this area. Indicate the timeframe of the activities: when they were launched, what the future developments will be.

The indicated maximum number of characters available for each reply includes spaces.
Deadline: 9 September 2020, 24:00 CET

Candidates must upload the Mayoral declaration, the Declaration on honour, the Legal Entity Form (LEF) and the Financial Identification Form (FIF). These documents can be accessed via the following links:

o Mayoral declaration
o Declaration on honour
o Legal entity form
o Financial identification form

A B C D E F G H I J

A. CITY IDENTITY

City name *
Country *
City size: (number of inhabitants) *
Short description of city
[Max 700 characters including spaces] * Help Include here some basic information about your city, its morphology and history insofar as these aspects can have an impact on accessibility (for instance whether it is built on hilly ground, or has a medieval centre with narrow streets and hurdles difficult to overcome for wheelchair users or the visually impaired). 700

B. SCOPE OF THE INITIATIVES

Please provide a general description of existing and planned initiatives, making reference to the following four areas:
1. Accessibility to the built environment and public spaces
2. Accessibility to transportation and related infrastructures
3. Accessibility to information and communication, including information and communication technologies
4. Accessibility to public facilities and services
[Max 2600 characters including spaces] Help For each initiative / action / programme include its aim, objectives, beneficiaries, start date and end date. Demonstrate global approach and ambitious vision for the future in tackling accessibility in your city. Where possible, quantify the level or percentage of accessibility in the areas below. For example: percentage of accessible metro stations, work environments, number of vehicles, websites, buildings, public administration etc. 2600

C. OWNERSHIP / LEVEL OF COMMITMENT

Please describe your overall approach to accessibility in your city and how the policy is implemented or planned to be implemented.
[Max 1300 characters including spaces] Help Please demonstrate the global policy on accessibility carried out in your city by presenting for instance: inclusion of accessibility in a coherent strategy or policy framework; high-level policy statements and commitments to accessibility; mainstreaming in the city’s policies and its regulations; structures or framework to implement/coordinate/monitor accessibility actions, responsible department(s), main actors involved, initiatives by private sector (if any) resources and staff allocated; monitoring and evaluation mechanism, information if a city has carried out a cost-benefit analysis of implementing accessibility. 1300

D. IMPACT

Please include quantitative and/or qualitative data to support the impact and effectiveness of your initiative + benchmark. You are free to upload links, documents or audiovisual material (films or pictures) that demonstrate the results and changes. The impact assessment must refer to initiatives mentioned in the Section “Scope of activities”.
How does/did the city’s policy improve equal access and the quality of life of people with disabilities?
[Max 1300 characters including spaces] Help Please provide examples as well as qualitative and quantitative data. It is important to mention project(s) – if any - involving people with intellectual disabilities. 1300
How do these initiatives benefit, beyond persons with disabilities, also wider parts of the population?
[Max 1300 characters including spaces] Help Please provide concrete examples. 1300

E. QUALITY AND SUSTAINABILITY OF RESULTS

How do you ensure the quality and sustainability of accessibility measures?
[Max 1300 characters including spaces] Help The quality of results is defined in terms of improvements made to the level of accessibility and its compliance with standards and legislation. You may also indicate whether your initiatives are related to any local, regional, national and European actions. Delivering sustainable results to ensure the full accessibility requires continuous efforts, the establishment of a sound structure and monitoring mechanisms (regular checking, notifying and repairing problems, handling complaints training on accessibility for city's staff etc.). Please present the evaluation and monitoring mechanisms set up in your city as well as the resources allocated. 1300
What are your plans and initiatives to continue these efforts in the future?
[Max 1300 characters including spaces] Help Please describe and indicate the time frame, if possible. 1300
This is an optional question. The applicant is not obliged to reply to this question if it is not relevant
Has your city ever used EU funds? How does your city inform your citizens about EU actions involving EU funds?
[Max 1300 characters including spaces] Help This is an optional question. The applicant is not obliged to reply to this question if it is not relevant. 1300

F. INVOLVEMENT OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES AND RELEVANT PARTNERS

Please describe the involvement of persons with disabilities, their representative organisations and accessibility experts in both the planning, implementation and maintenance of city’s policies and initiatives aimed at increased accessibility.
[Max 1300 characters including spaces] Help Please describe these activities by providing examples. Where possible, please include the views of persons with disabilities on the accessibility of the city. 1300
Do you carry out awareness raising or information activities around accessibility? Do you exchange and share experience and good practices with other cities at local, regional, national and/or European level?
[Max 1300 characters including spaces] Help Please give examples; you may also mention your membership in different kinds of organisations related to accessibility etc. 1300
Have you addressed disability in other initiatives undertaken by your city? If so, you may mention any initiative your city has worked on, even if it was not addressed directly to people with disabilities, if it took measures to improve accessibility or raise awareness about disability and accessibility
[Max 1300 characters including spaces] Help Please give examples; you may also mention your membership in different kinds of organisations related to accessibility etc. 1300

G. WHY DOES YOUR CITY DESERVE THE AWARD?

Please provide a short presentation of your overall accessibility policy and actions. Please explain why your results and your city’s accessibility policy are extraordinary and why you believe to deserve the Award.
[Max 1300 characters including spaces] Help This is an optional question

1300

H. SPECIAL MENTION "ACCESSIBILITY OF PUBLIC SERVICES IN TIMES OF PANDEMIC"

This is an optional question
As announced, this year there will a special mention for “accessibility of public services in times of pandemic”. Please describe the actions undertaken during the pandemic in your city, if any.
[Max 1300 characters including spaces] Help This is an optional question

1300

I. SUPPORTING MATERIAL

o| In addition to the information in the application form, four compulsory documents must be uploaded on the portal (Mayoral Declaration, Declaration on the honour, the Legal Entity Form and the Financial Identification Form).

o| A total of five files (maximum size of each file is 10 MB) may be uploaded. The uploaded files can be in the national language of EU MS countries, taking part to the competition.

o| Accepted file formats are: doc, docx, rtf, pps, ppsx, ppt, pptx, xls, xlsx, pdf, zip, gif, jpeg, jpg, png.

o| Each uploaded document must be appropriately named . The file name should clearly state what the file represents or contains. The file name should be in English.
Attach your mayoral declaration file *
Candidates may also include link to video resources or PowerPoint presentations in order to illustrate and highlight the strong points of their application.
Video links, e.g. on YouTube

You might want to provide some additional brief information about content of the supporting documents in the field below.
[Max 3000 characters including spaces] 3000

J. CONTACT PERSON AND WEB LINKS

Name *
Position / Function * Help Provide here all necessary contact details for the person in your administration responsible for this application.
Telephone number *
E-mail * You will automatically receive at this email address a PDF copy of your registration
Postal address * Help Please provide the postal address to which the Access City Award brochure and information about future Access City Award editions should be sent.
Official city website
Eventual webpages devoted to accessibility
[Max 1000 characters including spaces] Help Please include also links to your administration's website and, if available, to pages on disability and accessibility. 1000

DISCLAIMER: Unless the opposite is explicitly requested by the participating city, the submitted presentation texts can be made public on the Access City Award web site . The processing of personal data shall meet the requirements of Regulation (EU) No 2018/1725.