Age-Friendly Environments & Accessibility
We advocate for accessible and age-friendly environments to enhance autonomy and participation of older people. This policy area covers in particular accessibility, impact of digitalisation in access to goods and services, mobility and housing.
The context
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the physical and social environments are key determinants of whether people can remain healthy, independent and autonomous long into their old age. Promoting age-friendly environments is one of the most effective approaches for responding to demographic ageing and increasing the healthy life year indicator. Age-friendly environments empower us to age in better physical and mental health, promote our social inclusion and participation and help us maintain our autonomy and a good quality of life.
“We can enable older people to age safely in a place that is right for them, continue to develop personally, be included, and contribute to their communities while retaining their independence and health.”
Source: UN Decade of Healthy Ageing
Our key messages
We believe that we should all enjoy accessible and age-friendly environments to help us growing and ageing in our communities, supporting us to do what we value most.
We seek to:
- Ensure a proper implementation and monitoring of legal instruments like the European Accessibility Act;
- Secure full and equal access to essential services, so that face-to-face options remain available (e.g., public administration, transport, bank);
- Enhance accessibility, affordability and availability of digitalised services;
- Prioritise accessible and affordable public transport to ensure door-to-door mobility between and within EU countries;
- Support a life course approach for housing policy and initiatives, and support initiatives that adapt to the changing needs of its inhabitants.
Some Figures
is the number of estimated healthy life years at birth for women and 63.1 years for men in the EU. (Eurostat, 2021)
of fall related injuries occur while older people move around home; 16% on public roads.
(Eurosafe, 2015)
Around 70% of people aged 60 years and older live in cities in the EU. (UN Population division, 2018)
of people aged 75 and older in the EU uses the internet at least occasionally. (Fundamental Rights Survey, 2019)
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