Attendance and participation by members the public at government meetings is a basic and essential part of democracy. To exclude people with reduced mobility is illegal, discriminatory and anti democratic. Everyone’s voice counts!

In Portugal a law was passed in 2006 that required buildings where public meetings are held to be accessible to people with disabilities. Old buildings had a deadline of February 2017 to comply with this legislation. To read the law please click https://dre.pt/dre/detalhe/decreto-lei/163-2006-538624

We wanted to find out if the buildings and rooms in the Algarve where public meetings are held are complying with the law and are accessible to people with reduced mobility. So we conducted a survey.

In May 2020 Constance Houck filed a claim to make the official meetings of the municipal assembly of Lagos accessible to people with disabilities. The meeting are held on the second floor of the old municipal building in the center of Lagos. There are two flights of very steep stairs to access the meeting room and no elevator, so people with reduced mobility are effectively prohibited from participating in local government meetings.

The letter we received from the Provedora references a commitment made by the President of the municipality of Lagos to make the building accessible to everyone and or move the meetings to a venue that can be accessible to everyone.

When we won our accessibility budget proposal in 2018 (Please see the Winning and Waiting blog https://www.accessiblealgarve.com/winning-then-waiting-lagos-budget-proposal. We were delighted the voters had approved improvements to pedestrian crossings in a neighborhood in Lagos.

We are even happier today as the City has completed roadworks in a greater area than we had proposed and has taken on board suggestions we made to the city architect.

Earlier this year on 21st of May accessiblealgarve blog co-founder Constance filed a claim with the Provedora de Justiça (Ombudsmen) in Portugal.

The claim outlines and documents the lack of accessibility for people with reduced mobility to public transportation and public meetings in the Algarve. The filing was a result of months of work to document and craft the claim and we are very happy to have had the pro-bono assistance of a Portuguese law firm.

Dire Need For Accessible Bathrooms in Lagos.

Lagos, where we call home, has a population of just over 30,000 residents living here year round.