City of Turku

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Questions answered by Heikki O Haulisto, Accessibility Representative, Turku.

 

 – Where are you based? In Turku, eldest (it was founded in 1229) and fifth largest town of Finland (population: 176,401), on its west coast.

– What are you called? Accessibility Representative, Turku.

– What are you doing and why? The duty of the Accessibility Representative of Turku is to act to achieve accessibility in the city according to the Turku Strategy and the Accessibility Programme. In order to realise his mission the Accessibility Representative has to:

– search, inform on and produce both general and technical knowledge on accessibility and remove barriers

– train, advice and inform on all matters concerning accessibility

– establish and sustain communication between both municipal and private planners, builders and users, as well as other participants

– promote the realisation of methods to achieve and improve accessibility in planning, building and maintenance

–  constitute and sustain networking to promote accessibility at local, regional and national level

– create a functioning system to avoid, map and remove barriers as a natural part of the city administration

Accessibility means every person’s equal possibility to act in spite of one’s age, sex, condition or ability to function. Accessibility measures the quality of community. Wrongly planned environment brings up  lack of ability to function, not one’s illness, disability or lack of ability to function by himself. Accessibility will bring outstanding savings of public financial resources and well being of people, not just disabled. It is also an obligatory and important part of the Sustainable Development.

– Do you have a website/email? Yes. On the websites of Turku City you will find information about accessibility and about the Accessibility Representative (www.turku.fi). More pages will soon  be translated into English. You can reach me either by e-mail (heikki.haulisto(at)turku.fi), by mail or by phone.

–What makes you so special? In Finland there are only five full-time and three part-time municipal accessibility representatives, so it is rather special to be one of them. In my opinion I do have the best possible basis to be an accessibility representative. In fact I am disabled since the age of two. Plus, I have been schooled to be an architect: I have building, design and innovation experience. Maybe that’s special too.

 

The turning point

 – How did you start? According to the suggestion made by The Threshold Association in Turku, in 2002 the City Government decided that Turku should have the Accessibility Programme. The job of accessibility representative was established in 2004 and I was called to take care of it. The same year Turku Accessibility Programme 2005-2012 was accepted by the City Governement. My first task was to create my own job description, there was no earlier one. The whole thing was so new.

 – What keeps you going every day? Every day is a different day with different challenges and different people; this job isn’t boring, no way! I would get sick in a dull job. It is important to know that all you do means a lot to so many people. That gives me power to demand instead of begging improvements. The little group of all municipal accessibility representatives is very solid and unanimous. Also networking with Turku City Council for the Disabled as well as with associations of disabled people is a great help. These people are important advisers. We also have some individual experts.

– Who is your target? An accessibility representative works for every kind of people to make a better quality of living for them by achieving accessibility.

 

The challenge

– A proud moment? I have no doubt about that! That´s when we, the delegates of Turku City, were in Brussels among the four finalists of the Access City Award: www.accesscityaward.eu.

 – A problem you face? The worst is stupidity including mean attitude. Why are some people willingly bad?

 – Your personal motto when things get hard? I have no motto; I just grit my teeth and try harder.

 – Another cool project/organisation/campaign you would like to recommend? I would like this wish could turn into a project: the accessible tourist route around the Baltic Sea. It would bring accessibility to all the participant cities.

 

www.turku.fi

www.accesscityaward.eu

 

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