Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, 6 December 2019 – A collaboration between the Municipality of Milan and Ledha (League for the rights of people with disabilities) to improve the Administration's intervention on accessibility issues, providing technical support to citizens who intend to eliminate architectural barriers in their homes.

The trial, presented as part of the initiatives dedicated to people with disabilities organized by the Municipality, will last until December 2021 and will be financed by the Administration and the Cariplo Foundation. Thanks to these funds, Ledha will launch the Craba - Regional Center for accessibility and environmental well-being - which will provide free information, consultancy and support in the design of accessible environments. The service makes the address available to people with disabilities, their families and professionals craba@ledha.it and the number 026570425 (active from Tuesday to Thursday from 9am to 30pm) through which you can request information and valid indications for designing accessible accommodation.

“We want to take the opportunity of starting this important collaboration - declares the councilor for social and housing policies Gabriele Rabaiotti - to promote and support with even more conviction the culture of accessibility, which must not be limited to compliance with current regulations but it must contribute to building a vision of universal design that we want to increasingly assert itself in the city, in the public and private spheres. This is the first step of a journey together that we would like to continue with the launch, for example, of a laboratory specifically dedicated to homes for autonomy, accessibility and facilitated use of accommodation and its amenities".

“Today, when a person with a disability or an elderly person has to break down an architectural barrier to make their home accessible, they don't know who to turn to to obtain correct information regarding the legislation, the possible contributions they can benefit from, the technical specifications to comply with - he explains Armando De Salvatore, technical director of Craba -. Furthermore, in recent years we have understood that there is also a great need on the part of technicians and designers to have support and correct indications to move between rules that are often not easy to interpret. Craba wants to give an organic response to all these needs."

Added to these actions is a pilot project that will start on some publicly owned housing in which to test design, plant and technological solutions to improve the accessibility of the apartments and orient towards the principles of Universal design. Consequently, a working group will be set up which will include technicians from the Municipality, MM and Craba to offer support in the redevelopment of the municipal apartments. The collaboration also includes an intervention aimed at supporting the work of the architectural barriers office of the Municipality and at guiding citizens with disabilities in planning and accessing the contributions provided for by the "After us" law, for which it will therefore be possible to arrange meetings targeted according to needs.