The Ombudsman looks into disabled access to citizen service centres

Publiceret 03-02-2025

Over the coming year, the Parliamentary Ombudsman will be monitoring accessibility for persons with disabilities to municipal citizen service centres.

This is part of the Ombudsman’s task of investigating whether public buildings are accessible for persons with disabilities.

‘It must be possible for everyone to use the municipal citizen service centres. Naturally, this also applies to persons with disabilities. It is therefore important that the municipalities ensure that the centres are accessible to everyone’, says temporary Parliamentary Ombudsman Henrik Bloch Andersen.

In connection with the monitoring visits, the Ombudsman will investigate among other things:

  • Parking facilities for persons with disabilities
  • Access areas and entrance and exit sections
  • The design of toilets for the disabled
  • Information and signposting
  • Access to website information on the citizen service centre’s accessibility for persons with disabilities.

The monitoring visits will be carried out by visiting teams from the Ombudsman institution with participation of the Ombudsman’s two accessibility advisers. The two advisers have, respectively, a mobility impairment and a visual impairment.

The results will subsequently be summarised in a thematic report.

Further details:

Director of International Relations, Klavs Kinnerup Hede, kkh@ombudsmanden.dk

Facts

The Ombudsman’s monitoring of accessibility

On 2 April 1993, Parliament adopted motion B 43 on equal rights and equal treatment of persons with disabilities. In the motion, Parliament asked the Parliamentary Ombudsman to ‘follow developments in equal treatment and if necessary express criticism where possible within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction’. In connection with the reading of resolution B 15 of 17 December 2010, which concerned Parliament’s implementation of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2010, the scheme was confirmed.

As part of his work in the field of disability, the Parliamentary Ombudsman carries out monitoring visits to public buildings, particularly with accessibility for persons with disabilities in mind. The monitoring visits normally comprise the buildings’ accessibility for all who use them. The purpose of the monitoring visits is partly to generally follow developments in the field of accessibility for persons with disabilities and thereby gain experience of the more general work in the field, partly to point out specific flaws and deficiencies where necessary.

According to Section 7(1) of the Parliamentary Ombudsman Act (Consolidation Act No. 349 of 22 March 2013), the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction extends to all parts of the public administration. Pursuant to Section 18 of the Act, the Ombudsman may inspect any institution or company and any place of employment which falls within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman. In connection with such an investigation, the Ombudsman can, among other things, make assessments based on universally human and humanitarian points of view.