The implementation of the ColorADD Color Identification System for Colorblind people in the functional and spatial organization of the "Carnaval de Estarreja 2024" is an example of how an initiative that reaches thousands of people, from the most diverse age groups and geographical origins, can actively contribute to the dissemination of a unique, universal and inclusive language, serving those who need it – the population with colorblindness.
Estarreja’s Municipality launches this universal accessibility initiative at a particularly symbolic moment, where color is the protagonist of excellence – the Carnival celebrations. In this way, the municipality promotes the principles of inclusion and develops feelings of belonging among a population that will thus be part of the integration solution for All. These principles are aligned with the strategy defined by the Municipal Plan for Equality and Non-Discrimination, which highlights the value of difference under the motto “In difference, everyone adds up.”
In a playful and educational way, the municipality is launching an unprecedented programme of great impact, without forgetting the context of accessibility for all. The enjoyment of emblematic spaces and moments that are part of a city's usual narrative is further inspired by the proposal to create the first major programme of a pioneering Carnival in terms of implementing the ColorADD system, the main premise of which is to ensure that Colour is for Everyone.
In its intervention and in the context of ongoing implementations, the next steps in the Municipality of Estarreja foresee the implementation of this colour identification system for the colour blind in the territory's Library Network, from public to school structures, in cultural agendas and in all orientation supports in the Tourism area, in the Environment, in Civil Protection, as well as in all spaces where colour identification represents a rational factor of choice or orientation.
Estarreja is also the municipality whose partnership with ColorADD in 2023 will allow it to impact more than 6 million residents in Portugal.
Carnaval de Estarreja 2024 will help to reinforce and pragmatise a good practice, through a fundamental and deeply symbolic basis, with leisure principles that combine with concepts of education, qualification and empowerment of its population and territory in a pioneering and unprecedented way, generating a positive and disruptive social impact in communication.