Access City 2011
The Competition
In the inaugural edition launched in July 2010, some 66 European cities from 19 EU countries put themselves forward as candidates.
In each EU country from which entries were received, national juries were composed of representatives of national Disability Councils, national authorities and accessibility experts.
These juries selected from their national applicants up to a maximum of three cities as National Nominees. The national pre-selection round thus resulted in a total number of 30 competitors that were then submitted to the European Jury.
The city of Ávila, in Spain, was selected as the winner of Access City 2011 by a European Jury led by Paralympic champion Mark Ecclestone, supported by a team of specialists in the area of accessibility.
The other three finalists were Barcelona (Spain), Cologne (Germany) and Turku (Finland).