The European Concept For Accessibility 2003

2.1.5 Future Trends and Lifestyles

From what has been said above regarding diversity it is clear that Environments created by people for people should meet our needs throughout the whole of our lives.

However, it should be remembered that although someone's life is always coming to an end, the children of today, their children and their children's children have to live in the future, and need to find that the environment fosters quality in their lives.

Thus, the concept of expiry has to be replaced with one of continuity, the idea of local culture has to be superseded by cultural diversity, blind consumerism should give way to intelligent consumption, creating for the present has to become creating on the basis of sustainability, individualism has to be supplanted by cooperation and solidarity, new technology has to become technology for the people and, finally, the idea that there is a stage during which individuals are productive has to be discarded in recognition that there is meaning to the whole of our lives.

Social changes, however, do not come about unaided. There is a need to raise individual awareness, to educate and motivate people so that they give the best of themselves.

Creating accessible environments gives people the best opportunities, and thus fosters our co-existence and respect for one another.

Creating accessible environments means education on the streets, at work, in schools, shops, homes, parks. In short, it provides society with a real example of what a society should be.

If we do not wish to become the next species on the road to extinction, then the deterioration of the ozone layer, deforestation, climatic change, disappearing animal species and river pollution are all problems which require solutions now.

You may ask what all this has to do with accessibility, with installing a ramp next to some stairs, or ensuring that information about beaches is clear and presented in more than one language.

The answer is straightforward. The environment doesn't die with the individual, and so its continuity has to be taken into account when creating it. This is why accessible environments must be created respecting the universal principles of sustainability. If they are not, what kind of planet, what quality of life will our children, our grandchildren -future generations -inherit?