LU konference
Ivars Balodis, leader of Apeirons, emphasizes that the Academic Centre’s universal design is a wonderful example of a building accessible to people with limited movement without any special accessible environment solutions. “The building does not have any wheelchair ramps or platform lifts – each place in this centre can be used by anyone. And that, in my opinion, is the best practice,” says I. Balodis.
This summer, the organisation travelled around Latvia in search of the most accessible places for work, daily tasks, leisure and travel, emphasizing environment accessibility not only for people with disability, but also for seniors and mothers with children. Altogether, over 20 000 places were evaluated, selecting the best eight.
The UL Academic Centre of Natural Sciences was opened on September 7 this year; it is one of the most modern natural science centres in the Baltics and Europe. The building joins five faculties – Biology, Geography and Earth Sciences, Chemistry, the Department of Pharmacology (Faculty of Medicine), and the Department of Optometry and Vision Science (Faculty of Physics and Mathematics). The building is also home to six research centres of national significance.
 was ceremonially awarded the “Golden Crutch” as 2015 best humanitarian building of the year; the award was given by Apeirons (an organisation for people with disabilities and their friends). To praise the good examples of environment accessibility and to encourage others to follow these examples, Apeirons handed out awards of gratitude to disabled-friendly buildings, companies, and people.){kind=link}