The Palma City Council has launched a participatory website to update the Accessibility Plan, featuring a questionnaire and an interactive map. The process has a budget of €100,000 and the plan has not been reviewed since 2011.
The Palma City Council has implemented a new digital platform for citizens to contribute their proposals and highlight areas of the city that lack accessibility. The initiative, driven by the Department of Infrastructure and Accessibility, is part of the process to update the Palma Accessibility Plan, a document that has not been revised since 2011.
The website, available at plan-accesibilidad.palma.es, offers two ways to participate: a form where users can submit their observations and an interactive map that allows them to geolocate incidents or mark places they consider a priority for improvement. The aim, according to municipal sources, is to complete the diagnosis of the current situation and define the necessary actions to move towards a more inclusive city.
The launch of this open channel adds to the work that the council has been doing for months with associations, entities, and groups linked to functional diversity. These sessions have addressed areas such as public space, municipal buildings, transport, communication, and services, with a comprehensive approach that considers physical, sensory, and cognitive accessibility.
The new Accessibility Plan will have a budget of €100,000 and will be developed under the principles of normalisation, universal design, cross-cutting, and social dialogue. Among other aspects, it will include a complete diagnosis of the current state of accessibility in Palma, as well as the programming and prioritisation of actions that must be carried out in the coming years.
The document will also incorporate a cross-cutting vision that will take into account strategies such as active ageing, the use of information and communication technologies, work-life balance, environmental protection, and social responsibility in the integration of people with functional diversity.
From the Department of Infrastructure and Accessibility, they emphasise that citizen participation is key to detecting the real needs of neighbourhoods and prioritising interventions. The contributions collected through the platform will serve as a basis for drafting the new plan, which should be ready in the coming months.
The residents of Palma can access the platform from any device and participate anonymously or identified. The questionnaire includes questions about different areas of daily life, while the interactive map allows users to precisely mark problem areas, such as overly narrow sidewalks, pedestrian crossings without ramps, or access to public buildings with architectural barriers.
This initiative comes after various entities have called for an urgent update of the plan, which dates back more than a decade. During this time, the city has changed and new needs have arisen, especially regarding sensory and cognitive accessibility, which were barely considered in the previous document.
The City Council reminds that accessibility is not only an issue of infrastructure but also of services and communication. Therefore, the new plan will pay special attention to signage, municipal information in accessible formats, and training for staff who serve the public.
Disability associations have positively evaluated the opening of this participation channel, although they insist that the proposals must translate into concrete actions and timelines. The council has committed to publishing a report with the contributions received and to account for how they are incorporated into the final plan.
The platform will remain open for the next few weeks, and the contributions will be integrated into the drafting process of the document. The new Accessibility Plan is expected to be presented before the end of the year, with an action horizon that will cover the coming years.
To participate, interested parties only need to enter the website, complete the form, or mark incidents on the map. The more contributions collected, the more accurate the diagnosis will be, and the more effective the proposed solutions will be.
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