The Moroccan Association for the Disabled group is launching training on the concept of universal accessibility in Morocco. A first step within the framework of a pilot project that the group intends to launch at the level of the Sidi Belyout commune in Casablanca.
The Moroccan Association for the Disabled (AMH), active in the inclusion of people in situations of vulnerability and disability in Morocco, organised the first training sessions on universal accessibility. Addressed to a diverse public, the training sessions mobilised more than 150 actors, urban planners, architects, NGO leaders and urban planning students. "In Morocco, public space remains largely inaccessible to people with disabilities and thus becomes, not a place of exchange and sharing, but a cultural, social and economic obstacle, which triggers social isolation and discriminatory practices. The concept of universal accessibility and standards must be shared," stresses the AMH in a press release. Led by an international expert on accessibility and the AMH group, these training sessions constitute the first step of the "Casablanca, access to everything for everyone" project, spread over 18 months and financed by MEPI, the Middle East Partnership Initiative.
This first pilot project will be implemented in Casablanca and aims to transform the Moroccan megalopolis, which remains inaccessible to its inhabitants with reduced mobility. "This constitutes an ambitious initiative that has mobilised the city's actors, as well as academic institutions, notably the National Institute of Planning and Urbanism of Rabat, and civil society," declares Amina Slaoui, President of the AMH group. The three training sessions thus involved a team of urban planners and architects from Casablanca, NGOs and students from the INAU Rabat. Theoretical modules and role-playing exercises followed one another to upgrade and sensitise actors on the subject of universal accessibility.
"Faced with the enthusiasm of professionals, students and civil society, the AMH group will mobilise these actors during an accessibility diagnosis of the city of Casablanca and during the realisation of a pilot accessibility plan," continues the AMH. The pilot project indeed aims to raise the level of information of the concerned publics and to conduct constructive advocacy around avenues for improving accessibility for people with disabilities. "From urban space, a priority area of action for the AMH group, accessibility will be the subject and object of a project aimed at improving, in the long term, the situation of people with disabilities, in their city," stresses the AMH.
