Komotini Receives Special Honor for Accessibility Initiatives

The city of Komotini in northern Greece received a special mention at the 2021 Access City Award for its efforts to ensure equal access to city life for people with disabilities.

The Access City Award is organized by the European Commission together with the European Disability Forum and aims to raise awareness on disability and promote accessibility initiatives in European cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants.

Komotini received the special mention for seeing “accessibility as an opportunity for the whole city”.

The Greek city currently offers 20 km of accessible routes in the city and 47 accessible playgrounds, while 90 percent of its schools have undertaken measures to improve access for people with disabilities.

“We hope that the assessment of our proposal will bring interesting suggestions and synergies that will further improve the municipality’s accessibility policy,” Komotini Mayor Yiannis Garanis said.

Access ramp in a church in the city of Komotini. Photo source: @Komotini Municipality

The Access City Award goes to the city that has demonstrably improved accessibility in fundamental aspects of city living, and has concrete plans for further improvements.

Jönköping, in the south of Sweden, was designated the winner of the 11th edition of the Access City Award in an online ceremony on December 1.

The city of Bremerhaven in Germany and the city of Gdynia in Poland are the second and third place winners of the award.

Poznań in Poland received a special mention for the accessibility of public services in times of the coronavirus pandemic.

Apart from Komotini, Florence in Italy, also received a special mention for its “built environment”.