The European Concept For Accessibility 2003

1 OBJECTIVES AND DEFINITIONS

1.1 Foreword

The ECA Network started its work in 1988. The 1996 edition of the ECA stressed the importance of Integral Accessibility on the basis of Universal Design principles and harmonised the minimum accessibility criteria throughout Europe underlining everyone's right to freely use the environment. In this 2003 edition we also develop the social reasons to create environments for all and the improvement that Europe can achieve by doing this. The mainstream use of Internet allows us to enlarge and update the contents through our website Www.eca.lu.

1.2 To Whom the ECA is Addressed?

The design of the spaces in the built environment is not the responsibility of the architects alone. Most of us as politicians, professionals, citizens or entrepreneurs influence the design of our environment. Therefore this publication is addressed to two groups of people: On the one hand, to all of those who day after day define the characteristics of our environment without bearing in mind the human diversity and the difficulties that these spaces can create to the majority of the population; On the other hand, to all those professionals and politicians who are already aware that the built environment should be accessible for all and are willing to contribute to the European effort of harmonisation in this field.

The close relation between this book and the EuCAN website will also allow all the experts in the field to continuously contribute and thus increase the knowledge on this subject.