The All4all accessibility programme, launched in September 2016, has been helping tourism companies, restaurants, events and travel companies by financing projects to improve disabled access facilities.Public bodies including councils, regional tourism entities and museum and monument boards have benefitted from the installation of various mobility adaptations to help less mobile vsiitors and wheelchair-users, access services, sites and monuments.
So far, 60 projects have had financial support, according to the Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho, speaking at a presentation to TUR4all - a website set up by Accessible Portugal, the Vodafone Portugal Foundation and Turismo de Portugal.
This website enables potential holidaymakers to consult relevant information on accessibilities, including reserved parking, access ramps, safety handrails and door widths; wheelchairs accessibility, signage, the characteristics of adapted rooms; equipment for hearing and visual impairments, information in simplified writing and Braille.
Godinho explained that of the total of 260 applications received, 60 projects have been approved and have received grants totalling €7 million, but she wants to fund more.
"We will find a way to get a positive response to the projects that are pending, that’s what we are working on now," said Godinho.
In recognising TUR4all, Ana Mendes Godinho highlighted that the All4all is "not only a social imperative, but imperative for the country, because we have to be prepared for all. It is also an economic imperative if we want to be in the markets of the future,"
“We must ensure that we increasingly are a destination for all and that, in fact, we are prepared for this," concluded the Secretary of State.
