We attended the first review meeting of the Local Equality Program 2018-2023 at the Town Hall in Pécs today.
The purpose of the review is to update the data, analyse the situation, track the achievement of the objectives and deadlines, if necessary amendments.
The former working groups are still alive, and the People First Association will continue to work with our disability team.
On 10-11-12th August 2020 we participated in a meeting in three German cities, where we presented the activities of the association and discussed our participation in the Social Inclusion Action Day in September.
In Bad Salzungen, Merseburg and Erfurt our German partners listened with great interest to what the People First Association was working on, especially social sensitisation and accessibility.
Our main topic was the presentation of our Hidden City Tor-Tour, which they would like to learn from us, and in September we will help them try something similar in several German cities. To do this, we will travel to Germany with some members of the association from 21th to 27th September.
For more information about the Hidden City Tor-Tour, see the Projects menu on the website.
We have previously reported that the People First Association is calling for an investigation into serious breaches of disability in the Covid-19 outbreak.
In mid-July, we sent our submission to the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights of Dr. Kozma Ákos.
It gives particular topicality to the submission, we are preparing for the second wave and that the institutions continue to have strange restrictive measures towards our members.
In a request, supported by TASZ with facts and data, we asked the Ombudsman to initiate an own-matter inquiry and to make appropriate recommendations before a possible second wave of epidemics.
We’ll cover the developments, follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PeopleFirstHun/
We held a ‘Peer-counselor in accessible tourism’ 2-day online and 3-day personal training in our Peer-AcT international project for 10 people with disabilities in the days in Pécs.
Participants can work as consultants by tourism organisations, decision-makers, municipalities, tourist websites, or even expanding their existing job as consultants on accessible tourism.
If you would like to take their first-hand experience and useful knowledge of the international project, tell us: pfpecs@gmail.com
Now that all our team members have been released from quarantine detention, we’re back at full speed to the sticker project to explore the barrier-free locations of Pécs!
We discovered two Spar shops recently, both of which we have a very responsive attitude. Thank you Spar Hungary!
We kept working, found new cafes, restaurants, sports facilities. In fact, we have visited two large surgery institute and are exploring new accessible tourist trails.
You can read about this all the time on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PeopleFirstHun/
or more in the Accessibility Pécs menu on our website in English too: http://peoplefirst.hu/en/akadalymentes-pecs/
We are very happy with your comment, your opinion, your own experience!
With the help of members of our association an inclusive play will be realized on 5th of September on the IV. Barrier-free Tourism Day in Orfű!
Heni Szekeres is the inspirational one with his emotional writings, Marci Kopa is one of the main characters, Roland Balogh is the consultant and Zsuzsa Szabó is the director. We’re excited, we’re rooting for you, and we’re really looking forward to the premiere!!!
Our association also participates in the organization of the event.
Follow the Akadálymentes Turizmus Napja Facebook page for details!
The organising committee met on 29 of May 2020. and decided how to start organize again after the epidemic the IV. Barrier-free Tourism Day.
We’re going to announce that we plan to have the big day on 5th of September!
Our website will be launched in a few day and you will find all sorts of exciting info soon – in English too: https://akadalymentesnap.hu/!
We will also begin the preparations with our volunteers, and we will sensitise the tourist operators in Orfű.
Between 15-17 of June we will decide the detailed programme in a workshop with our partners with disabilities.
Follow us diligently, we will often give you more and more news from now on. You can find the event’s Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/turizmus.akadalymentes/
Members of the organising committee from left to right: Tibor Gonda, Zita Füziné Kajdy, Zsuzsa Szabó, Veronika Pataki, Evelin Almádi, sitting in front Gergő Berkes, messing with the camera Zoltán Murányi 🙂
The Project’s name: “Pécs is livable as a barrier-free city”
Its duration: 22.11.2018 – 31.08.2019
About the project:
Members of People First Association Pécs have formed teams of two and started visiting restaurants, cafes, hotels, shops in Pécs to map barrier-free places. If it was barrier-free, with the consent of the owner, preferably with him together put a sticker – which we designed – on the doors just like Visa or MasterCard. In case the place has a truly barrier-free toilet a WC sign appears in the lower right corner of the sticker as well. If the toilet isn’t barrier-free, the WC sign don’t appear on the sticker.
If the establishment is not fully accessible but improving its accessibility is possible and the owners of the establishment are open to it, we supported them with advice regarding the sourcing and installation of ramps, handrails etc., as well as help with official procedures or redesign.
In return the Association does not expect any financial compensation from the restaurants/cafés
All of this greatly contributes Pécs, as an assessment of barrier-free livable city, it’s also a tourist attractant factor.
Let’s make Pécs barrier free! A barrier free society is not only advantageous to the disabled; young mothers with prams, the elderly, and those with temporary injuries also benefit.
The attitude of the owners was positive, they were happy to help. Where they were not cooperative we didn’t discriminate, only we removed it from the database. Persuading is not our job. But the attitude of the owner, manager and staff is very important, it was also a “barrier-free condition” for us.
We have posted all times the identified sites with photos on our and additional Facebook sites. We had a lot of likes, comments and shares. https://www.facebook.com/PeopleFirstHun/
We have uploaded the identified sites on the wheelmap.org too, by this introduced the locations of Pécs in an european-level database. We have done this two ways: evaluated the already registered ones, and uploaded the missing ones with self-made photos. https://wheelmap.org/search
We have created a menu item on our website with a category database. We want to do this database more professional in the future. Our website is bilingual, all data and reports are in English and Hungarian – except the blog. http://peoplefirst.hu/akadalymentes-pecs/
Participants, number of the involved people, effects:
The “sticker project” was implemented by a 6 person-team of People First Association. 3 are wheelchair users 1 movements inhibited, 2 able bodied assistance. Many of our members also helped with ideas, with place recommendation, and we got a lot of Facebook comments from the city population.
Our membership is enchanted (8 person) who indicated that specifically in the projects they want to participate.
All included companies became partner (restaurants, hotels, national organisations), we have built everywhere a linked to one person relationship. These are very useful contacts for us (e.g. Hungarian Post Company, OTP the most important Hungarian bank)
Partners, potential supporters:
Among our members and close cooperating partners was a lively debate many times about the accessibility, suitability of a place, shall we put the sticker on or not, what is the really important aspect….
We have decided that some of the answers from the finding locations are not satisfactory for us. We continue to consult with them and in the last resort we turn to the Equal Treatment Authority.
We have a concrete relationship with many useful organizations (Biokom, Decathlon, IT Services, Hungarian Post Company, McDonalds, OTP Bank, hotels, restaurants, Bishop of Pécs, media). There was a case for applying into the project an organization itself (Pécs Plaza).
The attitude was very positive, we experienced only 2-3 times impassivity. The willingness to change was strong, even when the accessibility was a difficult task (tourist attractions like the Cathedral or the Mosque, or historic building like Almalomb restaurant in Hosszúhetény)
The project expansion was made possible by the support of C.S. Mott american foundation Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland, “Pécs City for wheelchair users – Promoting Inclusion through both Improved Wheelchair Accessibility and Community building activities” project.
Data
finding locations in Pécs from barrier-free perspective (restaurants/cafes/hotels/shops/public institutions/churches/public toilets): 53
sticker received: 22
not accessible: 14
accessible but corporate marketing reasons sticker placing is not possible (e.g Árkád Pécs, McDonalds, OTP Bank, Hungarian Post): 5
waiting for feedback: 12
As mentioned, in some places we continue to agree, wrote an official letter with the involvement of rehabilitation engineer and lawyer. In case of negative answer we will turn of the Equal Treatment Authority.
Media appearances:
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Continuation of the project:
We started the project in at the end of the year 2018 and completed it in August of 2019 in the framework of this project.
BUT, we can’t stop the project, because on the one hand, a constant updating requires, on the other hand, the disabled people requires the continuation. This is a entirely niche activity in Pécs, a current database is required.
We still have many places to discover and new directions will be implemented by the posts, comments of the local residents and interested: churches, tourist attractions, public institutions, cultural institutions, basic public institutions, hiking trails.
We also want to explore how places can be approached: bus lines, accessibility of the buses, accessibility of the bus stops, where to get off the bus, condition of walkways, route planning.
The already identified sites must also be checked – e.g. the public toilet on the Kossuth square was barrier-free and we got a comment, that it is full of cleaning tools by now.
We found the opportunity to continue, from September 2019 we keep doing it with a winner application of NFSZK FOF2019 project, now according to the above extensions!
Further plan to make the project part of city marketing – but to do this, need to create a strong city marketing in Pécs. This could help the prospective Disability Council Pécs for which we are currently working on.
Thank you for the Pécsi Közösségi Alapítvány/Pécs Community Foundation to give a push to the
Veronika Pataki Veronika, president
People First Association – Pécs
19.09. 2019.
Our main goal was with the ECK project was to make disabled people an active part of local society. We could reach that with all project elements.
The Barrier-free Tourism Day is increasingly well-known at national level and since 2019 in an international level too. New elements have been added, e.g. presentation of disability sports, involving a new location (sports camp), which have all made significant progress. In the organizing team disabled people are more and more active. The number of volunteers is constantly growing and expanded with new arrivals like students and high school students who are particularly keen to volunteer with us. Volunteers are important element of social sensitizing.
Exploring barrier-free hiking trails project element proved to be an excellent community-building activity within the association and the involvement of the local population was also successful in this project element. An unexpected effect was the strong media interest.
We developed a methodology to the Hidden city barrier-free guidance project element, and tried it on 6th of September with serious interest. It was also a great opportunity to build contacts with local populations and actors in tourism. The future continuation of the project element, the inclusion in the permanent tourist offers in Pécs proved to be a greater task than we thought, but the opportunity has arrived at the end of the project. We have also prepared to continue it in our international Peer-AcT Erasmus+ project.
A methodology has been developed also in Barrier-free advice project element. Here we are looking for additional partners, mainly lodgings in Pécs and the area around Pécs.
It was an important goal and impact in the whole project to make Pécs better and more livable.
ECK was the most complex project so far, which required a lot of work but thus brought satisfaction, recognition, external and internal success and brought new tasks. The greatest achievement is the increase in the activity and responsibility of the members.
It is difficult to highlight one as the best moment of the project, but since the best way to achieve the accessibility in our minds with enjoyable, cheerfully performed sensitisation, the Hidden city barrier-free guidance can be highlighted. We really enjoyed it, and the participants too. It’s a pleasure to show our city, it’s a pleasure to work with good partners. This is part of accessible tourism, which will be of great emphasis in the life of our organization in the future. We have already had serious results, we can boast of many best practices in Hungary and abroad. This is the project element that demonstrated the best the internal professionalism, which draws attention to the fact that people with disabilities are equally people. In this case, they are equally qualified in terms of diploma, language skills, creativity, innovativeness and even humor.
Thank you ECK!
Workshop on participating in accessible tourism
The first multiplication workshop of the international project that focuses on accessible tourism has been recently held for people living with disabilities in Pécs. Participants of the workshop gained insight into the project’s goals, its outcomes, and were informed about the application process for the free training, the knowledge and qualifications they would gain, as well as future employment opportunities in accessible tourism.
The Hungarian partner in the project is Zöld-Aktív Szociális Szövetkezet, co-partner is People First Association. What makes the topic of the workshop special is the fact that accessible tourism is a brand new player in the economy, not only in Hungary, but all over Europe. From an economical point of view, its emergence is inevitable, as people living with disabilities want to participate in the tourism sector both as service users, and as part of the work force. The latter is the main goal of Peer-AcT Erasmus+ international project, which gives the opportunity to people with special needs and disabilities to train as Peer Councillors, with inclusion and equal opportunities in its focus. The methodology is developed by adult educators, prospective trainers living with disabilities, as well as tourism professionals. At the end of the training, combining personal experience and professional knowledge, participants will be able to give advice and provide training in all fields of accessible tourism: transportation, accommodation, gastronomy, leisure activities, guided tours and city planning. In the future, they will work as trainers and consultants both in the tourism industry, and for decision-making bodies.
Participating partners in the project are Germany, Italy, Spain, Croatia and Hungary. Duration of project: 01.11.2018.- 30.04.2021.
The Hungarian partner is in charge of developing the methodology, i.e., how peer-mentoring is organised in the field of accessible tourism. As a part of this task, we have carried out a survey in 5 countries. With the professional leadership of the Department of Marketing and Tourism, University of Pécs, we are carrying out an in-depth analysis of the potentials of accessible tourism. Members of People First Association, a partner of Zöld-Aktív Szociális Szövetkezet, are actively helping the project with their expertise and personal experience; they participate in developing the peer-mentor training, and pilot trainings for service providers in the tourist industry. Members of the association are the prospective trainers.
In the near future, we are going to organise a similar workshop for tourism service providers.
For more on the project: http://peeract.eu/
and in the “Projects” menu on this website.