Hamburg city hall – visible changes at Hamburg’s city and state parliament

For the last three years, grauwert consultancy has been supporting Hamburg’s city and state parliament and senate in matters of inclusion and accessibility at their seat at Hamburg city hall.

Visible results of this work include a speaker’s lectern in the assembly hall which is height-adjustable and provides level access, and has also been adapted to match the style of the room.

Before this innovation, speakers had to climb a step on their way to the lectern. Now, speakers in wheelchairs can address their audience without needing assistance. For grauwert, the main challenge was to meet the requirements of a listed building and those of everyday political business.

“A first step towards a fully accessible town hall, which will no doubt be followed by many more improvements”, says Carola Veit, President of the City and State Parliament.

In addition, grauwert consultancy has developed a pragmatic, sign language-enabled solution: When ordering admission tickets for a parliamentary debate, it is now possible for visitors to request a personal sign language interpretation service. This new service, which has already been tested among sign language users and associations, is being developed further and optimised by grauwert.

Work is also underway on a solution to provide hearing support through subtitles for parliamentary sessions, making use of innovative technologies.

To find out more, visit www.hamburgische-buergerschaft.de