OUR PHILOSOPHY

People with visible disabilities are just one of the groups subjected to discrimination which should be protected. These groups include both women, who are discriminated as young girls in sports, and men, who are discriminated as boys in the education system.

Equal treatment is a much broader issue than the practices developed so far towards people with disabilities. It’s a horizontal issue that accompanies all of us at different stages of life (age), health status (fitness, chronic diseases), gender (women’s parental care, young men’s risky behaviors), identity and orientation (young LGBT people and suicide attempts) and in all areas of life.

When we think about accessibility now, it means adjusting our services to the needs of people with visible exclusions (e.g., ramp, induction loop, translation, organization of events, muting spaces for neurodiverse people). Such adjustments are an element of equal treatment that removes physical barriers.

But the barriers to equal opportunities experienced by diverse groups are not just physical in nature that can be solved “in a flash” – with training and specific adjustments. Ensuring their inclusion and equal treatment will be more long-term, process-based. It will invlove eliminating barriers that are often invisible but as real as possible and that affect the quality of life of all residents.

We are broadening the understanding of equal treatment – we are concerned both with adjustments required by law, as well as the availability of different urban services to diverse groups of residents. The services should strengthen their active participation in city life, equal access to city resources and promote inclusion (social, economic, educational, health, cultural) as well as leveling the playing field for those who need it. We want no one to experience discrimination in the field of urban services.

In this understading of equal treatment, directed at the highest possible quality of life for residents, the focus shifts from adjusting activities to designing them in a way that captures the demographics, conditions and needs of the broadest possible population. Adjustments will also, of course, be needed. But thanks to inclusive planning that takes into account different residents groups, they will be planned in a more useful and rational way.

Viewed from this perspective, a proactive approach to inclusive planning is a prevention of resident exclusion, sometimes called “activation.” In this approach, we want both the office and residents to be active, committed to their own well-being and the needs of the community.

There is no municipal action that is not for the residents. Whether a new road or public transport, space, sports, culture, population records, local tax, employment, education and entrepreneurship – all of these, broadly defined services, have an audience. And all these audiences are diverse and have varying abilities, needs, expectations, aspirations.
Feel free to contact us!