Handicapped Persons

The City of Nantes is committed to improving the daily life of handicapped persons through its 2008-2014 action plan. The Conseil Nantais des Personnes Handicapées (CNPH), a body which promotes dialogue with citizens, actively contributes to this goal. In 2010, its actions included the following:

• the creation of new workshops on the topics of employment, housing, shops and the citizens extranet;
• a study was conducted on access to the City's shops;
• the City's website published four videos in sign language concerning certain administrative formalities for marriages, PACS (civil unions), ID cards and passports;
• a partnership was developed with SAEM La Folle Journée, to offer entertainment in connection with the event;
• the construction of a lift at the Parc des Expositions, a major exhibition site for events taking place in the City.
• meetings with Stanton Williams, architect of the future major art museum, at the very beginning of the project design phase, within the framework of a specific CNPH workshop.

All of these actions, on top of the groundwork carried out for numerous years, are bearing fruit: for the second year running, the weekly magazine L'Express, in collaboration with the Association des Paralysés de France (AFP), ranked the City of Nantes among the top French cities in its accessibility survey.

The City's various departments and services have made major efforts to take account of handicapped persons in public policies:

• Green areas: €19,000 spent on setting up facilities to improve access to the parks of Procé, La Chantrerie, La Gaudinière and Beaulieu
• Housing: 30 dedicated housing units allocated in 2010.
• Parking: 43 new handicapped parking spaces in the city streets.
• Training: 26 employees were trained in receiving handicapped persons and three groups were trained in sign language.
• Early childhood: 167 handicapped children welcomed in municipal crèches.
• Education: 215 handicapped children registered in primary schools.
• Culture: the Nantes history museum in the Château des Ducs de Bretagne welcomed 2,572 handicapped visitors, while the Musée des Beaux-Arts welcomed 753 and the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle welcomed 484.
• Sport: 7,086 hours dedicated to handicapped sportspeople.