Project title:
CODE – aCcessibility Of financial services for persons withDisabilitiEs
Foster social and financial inclusion through strategic partnership. Promoting joint initiatives among stakeholders based on the exchange of good practices and skills.

Project duration:
01.12.2023. – 31.07.2026.

Partner organisations:
Chambre de Commerce Italienne de Nice (COO) – ITALY
FondazioneIstitutodei Sordi di Torino ONLUS – ITALY
Fondazione Luigi Clerici  – ITALY
Cooperation Bancaire Pour L’europe – BELGIUM
Atlantis Engineering S.A. – GREECE
Association De Patronage De L’institut Regional Des Jeunes Sourds Et Des Jeunes Aveugles De Marseille – FRANCE
Fundacio Privada Trinijove – SPAIN
People First Közhasznú Egyesület Pécs – HUNGARY

Project summary:
The project wants to provide persons with disabilities with guidance to better access financial services and documents, and to adjust the financial services and products currently available to their needs.
It will foster inclusion of the target group in the financial system and access to financial products/instruments by the collection and sharing of best practises of inclusion at EU level (IO1) and the creation of an interactive map for users i.e. a platform and an app that everyone can use (IO2). The project will finally create a new training course composed of modules and guidelines to be used by trainers and people with disabilities to deal with banking institutions (IO3).

The main task of People First Association as a Hungarian partner in the project is:
As in all international projects, our main task is to promote the principle of “Nothing about us without us”. In addition, our main tasks are the design and development of the CODE inclusive platform in the framework of the training course and digital tools, in cooperation with the Greek partner. The final fine-tuning of the materials developed, with the help of our association members, in the framework of the piloting of the course.

Project title:
Pécs Városi Civil Keret 2023-2/Pécs City Civil Financial Framework 2023-2

Project duration:
16.10.2023.- 31.12.2023.

Supporter:
Local Government of Pécs

Project summary:
Expansion of our Barrier-free Pécs Database with additional locations.
Our important goal is to make Pécs exemplary. There are few social problem areas that can connect as many target groups as accessibility.
Accessible venues and programs are a basic necessity for people with disabilities. Without it, they cannot go out, study, work, play sports, travel, have fun, run errands. That is, to live as an equal citizen in society. For the elderly and parents with strollers, accessible spaces are equally important. It is a great help for those with temporary injuries, pulling suitcases and shopping bags. And everyone is much more comfortable in an accessible environment! 

There is no list or map of accessible locations in Hungary. For people with disabilities, however, predictability is essential.
Therefore, in 2018, our association was the only one in the country to create a free Pécs city database of accessible locations in and around Pécs. In recent years, we have developed this from small grants, mostly from our own resources, into a professional one.
The aim is to provide urban populations with detailed and reliable information on accessible locations. Information is available in 12 categories, free of charge, in Hungarian and English, illustrated with many own photos, map display and contact information.
It also aims to develop barrier-free tourism in Hungary, to attract and inform tourists visiting Pécs (this is why it is also available in English). Since then, there has been no similar urban barrier-free database in the country.
The Barrier-free Pécs Database is available free of charge on our website in Hungarian and English: https://peoplefirst.hu/en/barrier-free-pecs/

Goal:
The Barrier-free Pécs Database is unique in Hungary and has made the city of Pécs exemplary. Countless organizations in the country are contacting us for professional support and partnership in this matter. This existing result is constantly strengthened as the database expands. 

Maintaining the database is part of city marketing. It makes Pécs one of the citadels of barrier-free tourism in Hungary, and its tourism marketing power is significant. 

Strengthening existing cooperation with City Hall.  

Based on our measurements and domestic and international feedback, the citizens of Pécs and visitors feel a serious need for the Barrier-free Pécs Database and are happy to use it.

 The social sensitization effect of the database is extremely important for both disabled and able-bodied society!  Therefore, the Barrier-free Pécs Database and the Hidden City Tor-Tour are closely complementary activities.

Target groups:
Our basic target group is people with disabilities. We do not focus on one group, since the membership of our association is also made up of people with all types of disabilities. Thanks to this, we have sufficient professional experience for the activity.  

Our wider target group is the entire urban population and visitors. Everyone who needs accessibility or is more comfortable.

How does the project work?
From mid-October 2023, the establishment of an exploratory team consisting of professionally prepared participants with disabilities. Holding preparatory training in the community space of the association (BeFogadó-Pepita).
Create a detailed schedule and task plan.
During October-November 2023, IT development and testing
From mid-October to early December 2023, new accessible locations in Pécs will be explored and existing locations updated in parallel. Professional explorations in teams of 3 people (limited mobility, visually impaired, assisting). Then they are processed and inserted into the database in Hungarian and English (description, data, photo documentation, map display, commenting option. Additional online marketing activities). 
Evaluation team meeting in mid-December 2023. Define future tasks and further funding opportunities. 

Results and impact of the project:
Training of the professional team. It is carried out by people with disabilities who have the best knowledge of their field. They receive continuous professional trainings. For them, this is a significant social integration opportunity: new knowledge, useful activity, earning money, learning, inclusion, sensitization, community building. 

Exploring new locations and integrating them into the Barrier-freee Pécs Database. During the very short funded project period, we fully explore 4 new locations from the grant and upload them to the database in Hungarian and English.  

IT development. Convert the entire database and web page to a newer and more reliable system and update the associated code. Software development and testing. 

 Update existing information in the database. An accessible database is worthless if your information is not up-to-date! This is not covered by the support received, so we try to solve it from our own resources, free of charge, because it has to take place continuously.  

Project sustainability:
In cooperation with the city, our database is part of the https://pecs.hu/en/ website.

Maintaining the database should be part of city marketing. Therefore, the already established cooperation with the Pécs City Hall must be expanded and strengthened. This would also require constant financial participation from the city, in which we are trying to achieve cooperation. 

Project title:
!ndeed
Comparison of approaches to independent living for and by people with disabilities in Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, and Germany. 

Project period:
01.10. 2023. – 31.03.2025.

Supporter:
Erasmus+
KA210-ADU – Small-scale partnerships in adult education 

Partner organisations:
VSBI, Verein zur sozialen und beruflichen Integration e.V. – GERMANY
People First Közhasznú Egyesület, Pécs – HUNGARY
Fondaziona Luigi Clerici – ITALY
Nadácia Krajina harmónie – SLOVAKIA 

Project summary:
Exchange of knowledge and experience between four partner organisations working on disability and independent living and providing services in Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Germany.
Through partner organisations, people with disabilities and professionals can learn about the best practices and knowledge of disability, social inclusion, self-determination and independent living in these four countries. As active participants, people with disabilities themselves participate in the project on an equal footing with their own experiences, needs, good and bad experiences, and the necessary evelopment ideas – as they are the best experts in their field. 

This international exchange of experience will enable the participating partners to initiate the creation of a European network on disability and independent living, which will allow the development of comprehensive concepts at European level in the future. 

The project addresses the three main objectives of the European Disability Strategy 2021-2030: 

• Promoting the transition from institutional to community-based care    
• Promoting labour market participation    
• Promoting education and lifelong learning 

The results are collected by the project in a publicly accessible online format, which includes identified approaches, information on methods, and stories told by people with disabilities. 

The partners will establish guidance on how to support the creation of conversations/discussions about disability and independent living and how to treat different participants as equals. 

Target groups:
people with disabilities, 
self-advocates who are interested in the topic,
employees of organizations that work with people with disabilities 

The main task of People First Association as a Hungarian partner in the project is:
People First will be responsible for dissemination. Develops a communication strategy, creates project messages, develops stakeholders analysis, plans the the project communication. 
It is also important to ensure that the target groups of the project are reached and involved. 

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Read the current news of the project by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Project title:
Walk in Our Shoes – Inclusive city adventure
Social Development, promoting an inclusive mindset in society and addressing protection and empowerment of minorities

Project period:
20.09.2023–10.02.2025 

Supporter:
The International Visegrad Fund: https://www.visegradfund.org/

Partner organisations:
People First Public Benefit Association, HUNGARY (https://peoplefirst.hu/en/)
European Youth Centre Břeclav z. s., CZECHIA (https://eycb.eu/en/)
SOWELO Foundation, POLAND  (https://sowelo.net.pl/) 

Project summary:
Spreading social sensitization in countries where democracy and human rights need to be strengthened. As a good practice, we share an innovative solution with our partners to spread the importance of accessibility.  

Accessibility and barrier-free tourism needs to be strongly promoted in the V4 countries (Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary). However, the receptivity is there in the V4 countries, the precedents are also there (accessibility efforts, laws, the society is receptive), so there is something to build on.
Lack of accessibility currently makes life difficult for many social groups. There is hardly a topic where the target group is so broad: not only disabled people are affected, but also the elderly, families with small children, people with temporary disabilities and everyone who wants to live more comfortably without barriers.
Accessibility is a problem at European level, but it is a definite deficiency in the former Eastern European countries (including V4). The kind of a playful, cheerful, self-experience-based form of social sensitization that our project offers as the best practice is much more effective. Society can benefit from being able to approach a social problem as an own experience. 

We want to create a network where we can share our experiences. We have a special, proven, good practice, and we would like to disseminate it within the framework of this project.. People First Public Benefit Association therefore offers our Hidden City TorTour as its best practice in this project.
https://peoplefirst.hu/en/blog-post/rejtett-varos-tor-tour-a/
In addition to the implementation in partner countries, we can also see what further development opportunities exist in our Hidden City project.  

Within accessibility, barrier-free tourism is also a major area to be developed in the V4 countries. Tourism operators have not realised that barrier-free tourism itself is an excellent business opportunity that they should take advantage of.  Therefore, another goal of the project is to promote and develop barrier-free tourism, also in an innovative and cheerful way. Our aim is not to put pressure on tourism actors (neither tourists nor tourism service providers), but to show the need and good side of accessibility. 

People can only understand the problem if they can feel it.
This means that we need to make people feel and understand that social inclusion is everyone’s business. Society is enriched with each active member. Accessibility is the core element of independent living.  

We noticed that people are happy to help. However, there is an inconceivable lack of information in society about accessibility and the needs of disadvantaged groups. Legislation and regulations on the need for accessibility mean a lot. But because they are mandatory, and because there is insufficient control over their enforcement, they are not fully implemented. 

There is no similar initiative in Hungary, this is a special, unique project. It is also completely unique in Poland and Czechia.  Participants of these Hiddes City Tor-Tour walks will most certainly be accessibility activists with a powerful multiplier effect!  

Important added elements of the project:
The walks are guided by people with disabilities, for them this is a job and learn opportunity!
Walks have to be paid for, so this is an income possibility for the NGO.
It is an excellent possibility to build professional relationships with tourist providers, with other local actors and participants. 

Target groups:
Residents of partner cities
Tourists from partner cities
Multipliers 

Goal:
The main goal is to provide our Hidden City Tor-Tour project within the framework of this project as the best practice that we would like to spread. 

How does the project work?
The People First Association develops training materials on the methodology of the Hidden City Tor-Tour. Than People First provides online training for partners on how to create their own Hidden City Tor-Tour in their country. It is up to the partnerswhether they adopt our method based on what they have learned in this project or add their own ideas too.
After the partners develop their own projects in Czechia and Poland, we proceed to piloting, i.e. we test them together. 

Sustainability of the project:
We will create a network with partners, which can be expanded to other countries later.  We organize an online closing conference on topics such as: barrier-free tourism, results and sustainability, building a wider network, involving new partners, new innovation opportunities, involvement of tourism professionals, publicity.

Follow the progress of the project here, or on the partners’ Web and Facebook pages.

Take a look at our Hidden City Tor-Tour with PécsTV:
Youtube People First

Project title:
Soul Mate
Mental care at work for people with disabilities 

Project period:
01.11.2022 – 31.10.2025   

Supporter:
Erasmus+
KA220-ADU – Cooperation partnerships in adult education 

Partner organisations:
KOPF, HAND und FUSS gemeinnützige Gesellschaft für Bildung mbH, GERMANY
People First Public Benefit Association, HUNGARY
SATIS, ITALY
Уърк Уит Ийз EOOD, BULGARIA
VSBI Verein zur sozialen und beruflichen Integration e.V., GERMANY 

Project summary in a nutshell:
People with disabilities remain one of the most disadvantaged groups in terms of employment and mental health.
Soul Mate addresses both issues combined by improving people with disabilities ́ opportunities to promote mental health and consolidate their ability to work or be an entrepreneur, thereby creating a prerequisite for a self-determined life.
Since there a no service specifically tailored to their needs we want to close this gap in the mental health care available to this target group. 

Soul Mate will provide new knowledge and concrete assistance on the topic of mental health at work for people with disabilities. This cost-free and easily accessible support service will contribute to improving their living and working situation.  

Aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Soul Mate promotes inclusion and diversity in education and work  

By combining each other’s expertise and skills partners will develop: 
-a guidebook for the e-learning and network software and contents
-barrier-free e-learning mental health training programmes for employees, self-employed or employers with disabilities
-a transnational virtual network for experience & knowledge 

 A little more details about the project:
Soul Mate enables inclusion and diversity in education by providing a barrier-free learning environment on the one hand and addressing the issue of mental health in the workplace with a special focus on people with different starting points on the other.  

It is clear that people with disabilities are still predominantly excluded from the digital world, which has a huge impact on the social and economic inclusion of people with disabilities in our society. 

Mental ill health – which includes psychological problems and stress – is an important issue in all EU member states, as it represents a major burden for individuals, society and the economy.Diagnoses of depression and burnout have risen sharply in recent years. Every year, more than one third of the entire EU population suffers from mental disorders. 

Our project combines both issues and addresses them by improving their opportunities to promote mental health and help consolidate their ability to work or be an entrepreneur. 

Of course, people with disabilities are just as, if not more, affected by mental ill health. Because they embody two socially still stigmatized characteristics – disability and mental illness – they are at higher risk of stigma and discrimination, which may discourage them from seeking support. 

Since people spend at least one-third of their lives at work,  it can be an ideal environment for mental health promotion and preventive measures. However, there are no services specifically tailored to the needs of workers with disabilities.The project aims to fill this gap by providing a workplace mental health training program for employees, self-employed individuals, or employers with disabilities. 

In the long term the projects objectives are:  
– to consolidate the target groups participation in the working life and reduce the risk of deterioration or illness, thus contributing to social inclusion and safeguarding the right to a self-determined life.
– to eliminate factors at work that threaten mental health by maintaining awareness and ongoing exchange about the topic.  

Target group:
– Working people with disabilities who are mentally ill. especially want to target people who do not have access to certain mental health care services because they are not available in easy-to-understand language, sign language, with subtitles or audio description. Our target population is not required to have a medical diagnosis attesting to their need for mental health support.  
– Self-employed individuals with disabilities who are mentally ill
– Employers who employ people with disabilities
– Medical environment
– Multipliers such as disability representatives, business associations, etc., 

The main task of the People First Association as a Hungarian partner in the project:
People First takes on the task of including the perspectives of people with disabilities from the beginning. This is important because the demand “Not about us without us” is a key principle in developing inclusive outcomes.

The integration of the peer perspective is discussed in the guidebook, but also in the tutorials. People First will be responsible for creating the digital tutorials, with the various “sub-tasks” shared among all partners.

Project title:
Establishment of an Independent Living Support Centre for people with disabilities in Pécs

Duration of project:
01.07.2021. – 30.06.2024.

Supporter:
Aktion Mensch

Project summary:
As part of the german Aktion Mensch application, the People First Association – Pécs and its German partner VSBI will jointly set up a Centre for Independent Living in Pécs. The centre is an accessible counselling and meeting point for people with disabilities, their relatives and cooperating partners.Based on VSBI’s concept and experiences, the centre provides training, information and advice to the target group.

Target group: people with various disabilities in Pécs, as well as public and private actors

Project activities:

• Establishing an accessible meeting point in cooperation with the House of Civil Communities in its separate building in the courtyard.
• Independent living counseling and training by peer-counselors 
• Building a network of supporters for independent living and establishing a peer-counseling system
• Providing general information and holding public events with cooperating partners
• Providing advice on independent living, accessibility and inculsion to people with disabilities and their relatives
• Developing a person-centred independent living model, networking with other actors and self-representative organisations in Hungary..
• Organisation of a regional conference on results.

The main objective is to strengthen social inclusion under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in order to improve the independent living of disabled persons, to ensure their own choice of housing, and social participation.

This requires increasing the information provided to people with disabilities, civil society and public administrations about the UN Convention, inculsion, in particular the right to independent life, access to personal assistance, community services, strategic, implementation and financing models.

Project title:
ARTcoWORKers
Arts and People with disabilities – cooperative digital working for inclusion during the pandemic

Project period:
01.04.2021. –  31.03.2023.

Supporter:
Erasmus+ KA2
Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices, KA227
 Partnerships for Creativity

Partner organisations:
VSBI Verein zur sozialen und beruflichen Integration e.V., GERMANY
KOPF, HAND und FUSS gemeinnützige Gesellschaft für Bildung mbH, GERMANY 
People First Association, HUNGARY
Citizen’s Association for Multimedia Art Theater, Creativity and Culture SHADOWS AND CLOUDS Skopje, The Republic of North MACEDONIA
VitalPed, NETHERLANDS

Project summary in a nutshell:
The Covid epidemic has been the most shocking affair worldwide of recent times for all. In addition to its many negative results we have learned a lot from it, which are worth exploiting in the future. The most important thing is that cooperation and joint forces are needed. Another lesson is that there are certain groups of society who are affected much more severely by a crisis. They need help first of all.
The ARTcoWORKers project has already put it in its name: four countries WORKs together to help people with disabilities in similar difficult situations, using one of the most commonly understood and usable languages, the ART.
In the meantime we are sensitizing to social inclusion and showing a new way for artists who are also strongly affected in Covid.

A little more details about the project:
We want to equip people with disabilities with the necessary instruments and skills to find creative and innovative solutions against the risk of exclusion and isolation, but also against the social challenge of ensuring the inclusion of people with disabilities even in the pandemic. In particular, opportunities are sought for how the cultural and creative industries can face these social challenges and make their own contribution to overcoming the pandemic. Special consideration should also be given to creatives and artists with disabilities.
On the other hand, the cultural and creative industries were also affected by significant restrictions and lockdowns by unemployment and no incomes. Artists and cultural workers with disabilities are particularly affected, too.
Therefore we saw a need for a transnational project, which organises on one hand an exchange of experiences of people with disabilities and the arts and cultural industry from different countries. On the other hand we find the manifold resources and creativity of the stakeholder groups, which shall be manifested through cooperative training in arts and culture, how to claim for equal rights and self determination, to overcome the restrictions of the pandemic and to cooperate in a fair manner to create new business, employment and incomes. 

The project will produce four core outcomes: 

1. The ARTcoWORKers Methodology 
2. The ARTcoWORKers Curriculum and course for people with disabilities in the field of active citizenship and creative work 
3. The ARTcoWORKers Performing arts – 6 shadow theater plays 
4. The digital ARTcoWORKers Platform/Tool Box 

In the partnership are cooperating together with inclusive adult learning experts for people with disabilities, self-representation organisation of people with disabilities, pedagogical and training experts, artists and theatre union as well as a specialist in creative and inclusive coworking and virtual topics. This variety of geographic, structural and business diversity makes the consortium very competent and strong. 

The project will have the following main impacts:

• The involved people with disabilities are empowered and skilled to use arts and theatre play for self-representation and getting equal rights during a pandemic but also in other situations of discrimination. 
• People with disabilities will have better and equal access to adult learning opportunities especially to digital learning. 
• The broader local, regional and national public and the political decision maker are better informed about the UN CRPD, the rights of people with disabilities in general and during pandemic and they have started to reduce the discrimination and segregation of people with disabilities in institutions and at home. 
• The cooperation between adult training organisations and arts and culture businesses shall lead to reinforcement of creativity in non-formal and formal education. New skills and competences are created in both sectors. 
• The involved arts, culture and creative industry will find new business and job opportunities together with people with disabilities. 
• People with disabilities get a chance to work as artists and in the cultural sector.

The main task of the Hungarian partner (the People First Association)
is the dissemination, and the social media, plus create marketing plan and the project’s message to society.
In addition, final conference in Pécs and the transnational theatre play will be organized by People First, as well as the blended mobility training with trainees.
The dissemination activities means providing quality information to the target audience from the beginning, especially in social media.
Networking, a partnership that connects participants in the arts and culture sectors, people with disabilities, human rights organisations and the social/creative economy, is also led by People First.
We will work together with several local NGO’s active in the arts to implement the project.

You can follow the news of the project here:
WEB: https://artcoworkers.eu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Artcoworkers-104689898685507

The International Cooperation Platform is available here:
https://artcoworkers-platform.eu/

Report on the international closing conference of the project, we held in Pécs in March 2023:
PécsTV News

Title of the project: “Let’s make Pécs barrier-free to all!”

Supporters: the businesses and residents of Pécs; in other words, us, Pécs people. The support was collected at the “Élő Adás” (Live Broadcast) community donation event of the Pécs Community Foundation.

Duration of the project: 01.2021 – 12.2021.

About the project:

This project is the third phase of our so-called sticker project, running since 2018. The team members, who, in the meantime, have become professional, survey the barrier-free locations of Pécs and its immediate surroundings and enter them into a free database. This work is done to benefit ALL OF US: people with disabilities, young mums pushing buggies, the elderly, or those with temporary disabilities.

In the long-term, our main goal is to create an inclusive society. We would like Pécs to become a city that is equally liveable for everyone, where people pay attention to all members of society, a place where every single person is important. 

From this point of view, creating an accessible environment is beneficial to everyone not only those living with disabilities. 

Disabled members and helpers of People First Association Pécs started exploring the city in 2018 in order to find locations that are really barrier-free. These locations have been categorised and added to a free, easy-to-use database, available both in English and Hungarian. 

This job, however, is ongoing.

For one thing, there are plenty of locations to be explored. At the same time, we need to keep an eye on those that are already in the database as there have been numerous cases where a barrier-free place was simply restored to its original condition, unusable for people with disabilities. For example, recently, a barrier-free toilet has been demoted to the status of storage room. In other – more encouraging – cases, it might take some time before, say, the promised ramp arrives at a restaurant. In addition, since we provide professional advice to create accessible premises, we need to monitor their implementation. 

 It is of crucial importance to us that local residents realise accessibility is good for everyone. It makes life easier for mothers pushing buggies, people with temporary injuries, the elderly, and even those who just want to manage their way through a busy shopping centre or railway station pulling a suitcase. If given the choice, they – more precisely we – all opt for ramps and automatic doors. While clear and visible signage in lifts, at customer service desks or in theatres is very welcome by the elderly too. 

Our partners in this work are local disability and tourist organisations, the local government, various organizations involved in barrier-free tourism, as well as the media.

However, the Barrier-Free Pécs Database is only useful as long as it is widely known and up-to-date. So, click on the link below to check it out, and let your friends know about it too:  Barrier-free Pécs (EN)

Since 2019 our association has been involved in the organization of Barrier-free Tourism Day. We are part of the organising committee and one of the main engines of the event. Our tasks cover a lot from organising programmes, bringing together volunteers, marketing, contacts, involving international participants. Our members are very active in creating the event, including as members of the organising committee.

The Barrier-Free Tourism Day was held for the first time in 2017 in Orfű. This place is one of the most popular tourist destinations with amazing location, four lakes and numerous beach, sports and leisure activities.

In addition to organizing an all-day cheerful festival, our main goal is to provide experiences to disabled people who otherwise cannot or only with difficulties can experience them.

This event contribute to let everyone have fun the same as a disabled or an able bodied person, as a child or an adult, while exploring that disabled people are the same people like us and we are able to help each other, and helping others is wonderful.

Inclusion is a main purpose, sensitizing the society to be, live and fun together disabled and able bodied people.

Social sensitization basically means that we let the able bodied society know disabled people’s abilities, opportunities and how can we help them. But we, the organizers are also thinking in another perspective: disabled people also need to get to know able bodied people’s attitude, why they are helping them the way they’re doing, and they need a lot of information about needs and everyday life of disabled people.

The fact that our guests came from all over the country, and on every previous occasion we had 700 participants in Orfű shows our events’ success. In 2019 our event became international which brought new guideline, new programmes and even a new place.

The Barrier-free Tourism Day usually has accompanying programs like professional day, conference or barrier-free trip.

Traditionally the date is always the first weekend of September!

The Barrier-free Tourism Day offers experience programs to disabled people, their relatives, their assistants and even able bodies people can participate. The following programmes are included in the repertoire:dragon boating, boating, sailing, fishing, motorcycling, horse riding, horse-drawn carriage and driving a car for visually impaired people. Furthermore, other events also add colour to the program, like craft fair, concerts, shows, events for children and buffet. We ensure free lunch every year for disabled people, their assistants and our enthusiastic volunteers.

The place is barrier-free, including the toilets.

About 30 volunteers helping us every year, they assist in administration, giving lunch, during the programmes and our strong male volunteers occasionally provide support in participating for disabled people (for example lifting them in the boat, up to the horse, getting into the car, the motorcycle or the carriage). Volunteers are always welcome, principally our previous ones and the ones from Baranya County Volunteer Center, but high school students are also common help, and we can also account for as the usual compulsory community service in Hungary as well. We’d like to have more college students as volunteers, especially with social or tourism-related studies.

The event’s main organizers: Gyeregyalog.hu Nonprofit Association, People First Association Pécs, Orfű Tourist Association. Disabled people had advantaged role in the organizer committee.

We’re constantly sharing news on the Facebook page:(https://www.facebook.com/turizmus.akadalymentes/). If you have any questions or you’d like to be our volunteer, feel free to contact us via email (akadalymentes.turizmus.nap@gmail.com).

Hidden city Tor-Tour
A barrier-free tour in the city centre of Pécs       

First, some background information on the creation of our Hidden City Tor-Tour:
accessibility is a fundamental problem for people with disabilities, especially if the areas declared accessible by able bodied society, from their point of view are not accessible.

People with disabilities have the right to and should have the same quality of life as their healthy peers. Being excluded from certain areas of life due to their disabilities is not acceptable.

Tourism is such a quality-of-life-improving but isolated area, which is of great importance for people with disabilities from a leisure, health and community-building point of view.

In recent tourism research, accessible tourism has played no, or hardly any role, which indicates the necessity to open up and do further research in this field. We prefer to talk about inclusive tourism, not barrier-free or accessible torusim, which term has a broader meaning, better showing what this branch of tourism is all about. Inclusive tourism is accessible to everyone, so the target group is much wider than people with disabilities. It is extended to everyone who needs a barrier-free environment, including the elderly, families with small children, or those with temporary injuries. Tourism is still problematic for these target groups in some countries, and it is not clear to accommodation providers, travel agencies and other tourism operators to involve them as potential consumers. Unfortunately, these countries also include Hungary.

With the support of the organization Strengthening Civil Organisations, the People First Association has developed in 2019 a new, attention-grabbing, accessible guided tour in Pécs, then introduced in 2021 as a regular tourist attraction, in cooperation with the Tourinform office in Pécs.

The aim of the tour is to sensitize and engage society. People with disabilities do not want to participate in tourism separately. They would like to participate in tourism together with their able-bodied peers.  

Accessible/inclusive tourism is an excellent opportunity for the two groups to collaborate, which is also the most successful way of sensitizing.

We want to achieve implementation based on broad partnership, with the involvement of professional and non-governmental organizations, city government as well as the general public, which would support social inclusion, so important to us.

A barrier-free environment is not only good for people with disabilities!

It is essential to influence city marketing from the point of view of people with disabilities, and the innovation. In the guided tour, we take advantage of the markedly felt phenomenon that that tourists are looking for novelty and unusual experiences. They are also looking for a different approach exploring a city.

The Hidden City Tor-Tour shows the city through a different lens. It shows participants how people with disabilities can visit certain tourist attractions in the city and what kind of tricks they need to play at times in order to reach their destination. Participants can experience first hand what is possible and what is impossible for people with disabilities, what kind of compromises they need to make, what it means not to give up, as well as all the feelings that arise in the process.

All of this is intended with a touch of irony, though. We have no intention of communicating negativity, rather we would like to have some fun and create good impressions. We would like to put the focus on the ingenuity, creative and positive attitude, and the incredible will of people living with disabilities, as well as sensitise able-bodied participants and educate them about how they can be of help.

For maximum effect we will provide various equipment for adventurous participants, such as you can try out sightseeing in a wheelchair, we give you glasses that model visual impairment, we present hearing impairment with earplugs, you can use a white stick to touch curbs and guide lanes, you can walk with a guide dog.

Length of the tour: about 90 minutes

We will offer a variety of tours with professional guides.

Basic plan
(in good weather): visiting the attractions of the historic downtown and viewing them through a different lens.

Route: Széchenyi square – Mosque – Cathedral square – Barbakán – Széchenyi square – Király street – (ILP Café)

Tours always end with a conversation, possibly in a café, since evaluation, getting to know the opinions of the participants is an essential element of social sensitization and involvement. 

We have come up with several types of tours, we can adapt to target groups or requests, and we also have our own exciting versions.

Target groups:
1. Tourists visiting the city
2. Business and professional tourism (MICE), as a side event to conferences, as Pécs- Best practice, and for Corporate events.
3. Local residents. On the one hand through thematic tours organised monthly or quarterly, and on the other hand through less formal, playful tours for groups of school children, involving sensitizing games. 

We consider it a great achievement that we were able to include the Hidden City Tor-Tour among the permanent thematic tours of Pécs, in partnership with the Irány Pécs/Tourinform office:
Permanent tourist offer

Additional goals:
Our further aims include sensitising, informing, and getting the general public involved. An important goal is inclusion and the full participation of people with disabilities in society, as well as educating people regarding disabilities.

The active support of people with disabilities should play a role in the city marketing of Pécs, which would positively influence the city’s perception both domestically and internationally. We would like Pécs to become an exemplary city in its approach to people with disabilities, so we can be proud of our city in this respect as well.

Through the press and social media, we are hoping to gain wide publicity for the issue of inclusive tourism and the city.

In the long run, this project will provide employment opportunities in accessible tourism for local residents living with disabilities. Our tour guides are always our professionally prepared members with disabilities. Participants will acquire new skills, knowledge, experience as well as a “profession”. By making the project sustainable in the long run, participants are given the opportunity to become active members of society, at the same time we offer an innovative tourism service in Pécs.

Through this project we are building a network of partners, and fostering open-minded cooperation between non-governmental organizations, the city and tourism organizations.

Prices of tours:
2500HUF/person
Group discount if min. 10 people buy tickets at the same time:
2000 HUF/person

The Hidden City Tor-Tour and our Barrier-free Pécs Database are closely linked. During the Hidden City walks, we show you some locations that we have already explored in the database. We talk about how the database works: we present accessible sites and make suggestions for improvement. We will also show you how much we have achieved with this, how many venues have become barrier-free that were not available before. The Hidden City without the Barrier-free Pécs Database would be just a pleasant walk. Thus, building on the database, we not only show what is not accessible, but also tell you what and how we do for accessibility.

A brief insight into a two-minute video coverage on our Youtube channel:
Come for a walk with us in Pécs! Barrier-free