Interview. Toulouse. Events and a new label to highlight inclusion in the city
By Anthony Assemat
Published on
From September 2022 to February 2023, the town hall of Toulouse and Toulouse Métropole are organizing events around disability and inclusion. Thus, the “Villes pour Tous” label replaces the old one, called “Rencontres Villes&Handicap”.
Christopher Alves, delegate municipal councilor in charge, in particular, of the handicap and the associative life, exposes for Toulouse News the stakes of these issues.
An event program for the general public
News: What is the difference between Cities & Handicap and Cities for All?
Christopher Alves: “The Ville & Handicap Meetings have been taking place over 15 days in November for almost ten years. The purpose of these two event weeks was to destigmatize disability through awareness-raising actions. Villes pour Tous is an event program for all ages, which is not only for people with disabilities, on which we guarantee accessibility for each appointment and this, all year round, with two half-yearly programs”.
What is the share of the disability/accessibility budget for the Town Hall and the Metropolis?
Ch. A. : “All the budgets of the Town Hall and the Metropolis take into account the disability for more accessibility and inclusion on a daily basis.
Beyond that, the Handicap service has a budget of 200,000 euros for inclusion actions, the Town Hall of Toulouse has devoted 46 million euros for 8 years to make adapted equipment accessible to the public and Toulouse Métropole 5 million euro”.
Villes pour Tous, is it an aggregator of existing events or has the label brought other things?
Ch. A. : “Both! Villes pour Tous labels events that would have taken place without the brand (Job forum on the Ramblas, Walk for the view on the Prairie des Filtres, etc.) but also offers strong appointments in the landscape Toulouse and metropolitan (Giant Toy Library, sports day at Alex Jany, shows at Bascala and Bikini, etc.).
What are the latest news in terms of inclusion in Toulouse?
Ch. A. : “I would rather talk about tools allowing inclusion. When you are blind or partially sighted, you can now benefit from audio description, especially during TFC matches at the Stadium, and this will be used in other sports such as handball with Fénix at the Palais des Sports.
When you are deaf or hard of hearing, you can attend concerts and feel the vibrations of the music thanks to Subpack vests”.
Highlights
If you had to pick out the big highlights of this season, what would they be?
Ch. A. : “In October 2022, we give you an appointment for the Forum place de l’emploi on the Ramblas, the Toulouse Polars du Sud festival or the Marche pour la vue.
In November 2022, Villes pour Tous holds its festival from the 21st to the 27th, with an extremely rich week and prestigious guests (Charles Gardou, Sonia Lavadinho or even the Godmother of Villes pour Tous, Manon Lefort).
In December 2022, Villes pour Tous will notably take up residence on major highlights at the Musée des Abattoirs”.
What is the town hall’s support policy, particularly on sign language?
Ch. A. : “The town hall of Toulouse is very committed to deaf culture and sign language. The municipal councils are accessible a posteriori in LSF to allow everyone access to civic life, many municipal services are accessible in LSF via an operator who translated live the request of the deaf person to the public service (Toulouse Connect).
Finally, the Toulouse Guichet system will also ramp up in the coming months with the deployment of digital interfaces allowing deaf people to go directly to public service counters to request information and support.
Was this article helpful to you? Note that you can follow Actu Toulouse in the My Actu space. In one click, after registration, you will find all the news of your favorite cities and brands.