Everyone participates

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The municipality of Bergen op Zoom and Accessible Bergen op Zoom will sign the manifesto "Everyone participates" that day.

With this, Bergen op Zoom has been admitted to the 'Everyone participates' frontrunner program of the Association of Dutch Municipalities.

Only 12.5% of the municipalities have signed this manifesto. That does not mean that other municipalities are not active. In the fall of 2019, 36% of municipalities were developing a local inclusion plan. These numbers are not impressive. Since the grant by the Netherlands of the UN Handicap Convention in 2016, all municipalities are obliged to develop such a policy and implement it in phases.

Only 44 municipalities are leading the way in implementing the UN Disability Convention. This treaty ensures that people with disabilities can fully participate in Dutch society and that public spaces and buildings are accessible to people with disabilities. These equal rights also apply in the areas of housing, work, care, education, transport, entertainment, sports and culture and communication. In short, in all areas within (Berg) society.

A status of frontrunner municipality creates obligations. Accessible Bergen op Zoom believes that policy should not only be established. Every year, 'small' feasible, practical projects should show how inclusion in Bergen op Zoom is gradually taking shape.

Accessible Bergen op Zoom believes that inclusion projects should be evaluated every year. In addition, the municipality must draw up a plan with feasible projects for the following year. So successful projects that the municipality can be proud of and that show that 'inclusion' is taken seriously.