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Description
We have been working for many years to make sure that public beaches on the Polish coast are available to people with different accessibility needs: individuals with disabilities, caretakers with children, elders, and people with injuries. Despite a broad scope of our educational initiatives, drafting recommendations and consultations with local governments, many beaches remain without even the most basic accessibility features. From our observations and conversations with the representatives from local governments we concluded that there is a need for more experts in dialogue between municipalities and activists, a universal architectural design plan and a certificate that could promote and confirm local government’s work. We will address these issues by creating and implementing a certification program in Poland that would define the criteria for a fully accessible beach. We will conduct consultations for the certificate criteria with experts on accessibility, activists, local governments, architects, and contractors. We will train individuals managing the beaches on the topic of accessibility and certification, as well as teach individuals to audit the beaches and investments overseen by the local governments. We will design a campaign entitled “The Beach for Everybody” to promote the issue of accessibility and the certification program. We would like to encourage new local governments to develop their municipalities in the direction of more access and spread the information about the state of Polish beaches. In selected municipalities interested in getting certified, we will hold open dialogue sessions “The Beach for Everybody – Local Needs” that will be attended by local government representatives, NGOs and the citizens. Jastarnia Municipality will be the project’s partner. We have been collaborating for several years on beach accessibility at the Hel Peninsula. This ongoing collaboration will allow us to implement a pilot certification program.
Summary of project results
We have been working to make coastal beaches in Poland accessible to people with various levels of mobility, including individuals with disabilities, caregivers of children, seniors, and those recovering from injuries. Despite our extensive educational efforts, recommendations, and consultations with local authorities, many beaches were still not adapted to the needs of different visitors, even at a basic level. Based on our experiences and conversations with local authorities and activists, we noticed a lack of designated individuals responsible for addressing this issue, a universal architectural plan for implementation, and a certification that would promote and confirm the actions taken by local governments.We created and implemented the only certification program in Poland that defines the criteria for a fully accessible beach for everyone, regardless of their level of mobility. We conducted consultations on the certification criteria with accessibility experts, activists, local governments, and professionals in architecture and construction. We provided training to beach managers on the subject of accessibility and certification. We also trained individuals to conduct beach audits and monitor investments carried out by coastal municipalities. As part of the project, we conducted one social audit. We launched the "Beach Accessible to All" campaign to promote the concept of accessible beaches and the certification program. Our goal was to encourage new local governments to develop their communities in this direction and disseminate information about the state of Polish beaches. In selected municipalities interested in certification, we organized dialogue sessions about accessible beaches which were attended by representatives of local authorities, NGOs, and residents.The project was carried out in partnership with the Municipality of Jastarnia, with whom we have been cooperating on beach accessibility for several years. Besides a few other municipalities. Jastarnia participated in the pilot implementation of the beach certification program for individuals with diverse needs, including those with disabilities. Thanks to this initiative, in 2022, Poland saw the first three certified beach entrances accessible to everyone (in Jastarnia, Sopot, and Gdynia). The program received significant interest, so we hope that more such beaches will be created in the future. The certification program continues to be developed and implemented.
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