Accessible cities festival

ACCESSIBLE CITIES FESTIVAL INTRODUCTION Foligno is a city in the heart of Italy, in Umbria. It is a land full of mountain villages, but it's very accessible. Foligno is served by highways and railways and it is an “historical” trading area that persuades with its mobility. The city has a 10,000 feet oval public park. The “main square” - which is 2,500-3,800 feet wide - and the new S. Domenico Square are only 1,000 and 2,000 feet far from the parking area, the bus station and the railway station. There are also two concert halls, seven cinema halls and a number of cultural places. They are all accessible. Accessibility is the key from the nineties, and the city wants to renew its promise and be an accessible place for all.

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MANAGERS AND TECHNICIANS We think this event will take place in March-April 2014 and it will last 3 days. The idea has to be improved, thus we are open to suggestions. There will be three cities; we are intentioned to choose them for their attitude to create accessibility. They will illustrate their strategies, tools and rules adopted for their city's accessibility. There will be a discussion about management tools. Each one of the cities' administration will introduce a technician (an engineer, an architect, an associate studio or other) that took part to the administration's action.

ACCESSIBLE CITY AND BUSINESS It would be great to create a dedicated business area. There will be companies responsible for accessible street furniture (for ex.: accessible public parks, “for all” street furniture, multi-sensorial urban communication).

“LIBRO PARLATO” PROJECT In collaboration with the International Center of the Libro Parlato (Spoken Book, n.d.t.) we will promote the creation of an “audio book” concerning the Accessible Cities Festival. With the collaboration of E.N.S. we could turn the audio book into a “multimedia book” containing comments and reports, in booth LIS (Italian Sign Language) and text format. Libro Parlato had a previous collaboration with Adotta Una Barriera (association for the abolition of architectural obstacle) during the activity that took place on the 6th, 7th and 8th of April 2013, called “Playing In Every Sense”.

In collaboration with Adotta Una Barriera and with the help of some voluntary work, we could turn

this activity to a regional audio book center.

EXPERTS IN EVERY SENSE It would be a good idea to invite the architect Mrs. Consuelo Agnesi (we are getting in touch with her) to discuss about the “Design for all”/”Universal Design” and to introduce her “Accessible light” system, which implements up-to-date technologies concerning the house robotics automation to abolish communication problems. It will help the customer to communicate and will increase deaf people's safety, in booth private and touristic environments.

STREET ART FRIENDLY CITY During this festival, we would like to open the city to every kind of street art (we could use the taverns where the Quintana takes place). We are launching our idea at the “Animated Pictures” Festival in Pian di Massiano, Perugia (started on the 22th of August). This festival is based on sensibility and helpfulness toward social themes (in the past editions Daniela and Giorgio were guests, performing artistic activities with masks and puppets).

PLEASANT AND ACCESSIBLE MOBILITY Our festival could be the chance to make an experiment based on the pleasant mobility. This could happen by inviting involved companies (we've gotten in touch with Cargo Bike) or by a trial of “Leo”, an accessible electric quad engineered by the Leonardo da Vinci Technologies Institute of Foligno.

NOT OCCASIONAL MEETING We would like to invite the Regional Observatory and one - or more - of the most important accessibility agencies (F.IS.H., U.I.L.D.M., etc.). We would like to include networks involved in the accessibility of the “Design for All” and “Retail for All” projects.

RETAIL FOR ALL Another interesting part of our festival is “Retail for All”, which is a variety of strategies and experiences related to shops' accessibility. It includes architectural strategies and particular services (like orders and house-to-house service). We are in touch with Coop and with “Largo Consumo”.

The last one promoted a recent and in-depth discussion about the main themes of this project.

NATURAL &... ACCESSIBLE SHOPPING CENTER Finally, we could focus our attention on the P.M.U. (Urban Plan Marketing) and the “Natural Shopping Center”. In fact, the administration wants to improve the city's accessibility, especially during the redevelopment of the historical center.

OPEN PROJECT The Accessible Cities Festival is an open project. In September 2013 we want to constitute an administrative body. Everyone can join or make a donation. Please feel free to contact us.