With a view to increasing and dutiful attention to the issue of disability, the Municipality of Vicenza has decided to establish the figure of the “Peba contact technician”, with monitoring tasks on the issues of mobility and universal accessibility in the city. A choice in line with the drafting and approval of the Peba (Plan for the elimination of architectural barriers), which took place in 2019, and with the appointment of the municipal councilor Mauro Burlinadelegate for inclusive policies aimed at people with disabilities, which took place in 2023.
«As a municipal administration we want to respond to the need for an inclusive city, in light of an ever-increasing sensitivity and attention to issues such as disability and inclusiveness, also taking into account the aging of the population – he explains Cristiano Spiller, councilor for public works and mobility -. It is precisely with this in mind that we have chosen to establish the figure of the Peba Technical Representative. We want Vicenza to increasingly become a city capable of meeting everyone’s needs.”
The Plan for the elimination of architectural barriers provides for 300 thousand euros of expenditure annually for standard chapters relating to buildings (with the installation of ramps and lifts), roads (particularly pavements) and the adaptation of bus stops. The resources invested by the Municipality, every year, regarding the removal of architectural barriers, are however higher than the 300 thousand euros foreseen by Peba: there is in fact a substantial, but difficult to quantify, share of ordinary resources invested by the Municipality to outside the plan for the elimination of architectural barriers.
If a monitoring action is already contained in the Peba, as an integral part of each planning process, the characterization of a technical figure to whom to entrust the preventive examination of each public works project, demonstration and event in public spaces, represents a novelty. After a discussion between the Department of Mobility and Public Works, and the Department of Social Affairs, the municipal administration has therefore decided to establish the “Technician Referent Peba”: an internal and stable figure, who will be chosen through a notice.
«This – declares the councilor Joke – it is an important step to continue moving in the direction of respecting the rights of people who are disabled and who still today find too many obstacles to experience the city and move around. Having a contact person who, in discussions with designers, listens to and anticipates the needs of people with these difficulties seems to me to be an important change of pace.”
The new role will have to carry out several tasks: promoting planning of public works with a view to equal opportunities and overcoming architectural barriers; promote the exercise of rights and opportunities for access and use of municipal services by people with disabilities; collect the requests of numerous organizations and bodies, with particular reference to associations of people with disabilities; monitor the implementation of Peba, reporting annually to the municipal council; express one’s obligatory technical opinion during the drafting of the project or during the approval of any public work that involves modifications, innovations and increases in public spaces and structures; and, finally, provide consultancy regarding the staging of events of any nature organized by the Municipality of Vicenza, in order to guarantee their adequacy in terms of overcoming architectural barriers and universal accessibility.
