Professional report PVCK 2025
People First Public Benefit Association – Pécs
2/381-3/2025
Project period: 01.12.2025–30.09.2026
The People First Public Benefit Association has been running its nationally unique Accessible Pécs Database since 2018, showcasing genuinely accessible locations based on the personal experiences of experts with disabilities. Alongside the accessibility assessments it has been carrying out for years, the association now aims to involve the residents of Pécs and encourage them to take action. The first step was a joint project engaging students and staff of the University of Pécs.
As part of the Pécs City Civil Fund 2025 project, supported by the Municipality of the City of Pécs, the People First Public Benefit Association and the University of Pécs jointly called on university students and staff to take action. The aim of the initiative was to ensure that accessibility would not be seen solely as an institutional responsibility, but would become a shared cause, in which the people who use these spaces every day actively participate in shaping them. Participants identified barriers in university buildings, dormitories and the public spaces leading to them, documenting their findings with photographs and descriptions. An important requirement was that they should not simply report problems, but also propose solutions. In this way, the programme also strengthened self-advocacy, community responsibility and active civic participation: we should not just notice barriers, but take action to remove them.
The initiative is significant not only for Hungary’s first university, but also for the development of a more accessible city of Pécs, as the programme also brings to light accessibility issues concerning routes, transport points and public spaces connected to university facilities. The cooperation is a good example of how institutional commitment and the experience of civil society can reinforce each other. The University of Pécs is currently conducting a comprehensive assessment of university infrastructure requiring accessibility improvements, with the involvement of professionals. This work is being prepared and reinforced by the People First Public Benefit Association’s “Pécs City Civil Fund 2025” project, implemented with funding from the City of Pécs, which uses community-based data collection to help identify everyday barriers.
Activities undertaken in the grant application:
- Preparation: December 2025–February 2026. A series of meetings between the University of Pécs Directorate of Education, Directorate of Relations, Investment and Real Estate Management Department, Support Service, Ombudsman and the People First Public Benefit Association (PF). During the preparation phase, it became clear that the University of Pécs was developing an accessibility plan, for which PF’s activities could provide an excellent foundation, supplying genuine reports and proposed solutions directly from the people concerned.
On 9 March 2026, the University of Pécs and PF held a joint press conference to announce the launch, accompanied by a project video.
- Establishment of the PF and PTE team: PF prepared a training session, a timetable and a process plan. A joint PTE–PF team of people actively working together on the project was established, consisting of representatives of the university units mentioned above.
- Call for participation: March–August 2026. Online calls and posts on PF and PTE platforms, paid advertising, PTE online channels, local press, posters displayed at various university faculties, and another awareness-raising video produced by the students themselves.
Processing of submissions: April–September 2026. PF created a dedicated email address for the incoming reports. Submissions were continuously processed and forwarded to the University of Pécs, discussions were held, and we provided feedback to everyone who submitted a report, whether to request further information or clarification, or to thank them for their valuable work.
Accessibility assessments: As it was clear that reports submitted through the project would not immediately lead to accessibility improvements in an organisation the size of the University of Pécs, PF committed in the grant application to assessing and adding four new locations in Pécs to the Accessible Pécs Database in any case. We also tried to select these locations in line with the needs of the university community. This is how the assessments came to include the Umami fast-food restaurant on the university campus, which is popular among university students and staff; the Pius Church next to the university, frequented by international students; the Páholy restaurant; and the renovated Palatinus Grad Hotel. These four locations clearly illustrate that accessibility is important in every area of everyday life. The assessments and the professional evaluation of the submitted proposals were carried out by the People First expert team: Almádi Evelin, Berkes Gergő, Kerekes Hilda and Pataki Veronika**.**
- Conclusion and sustainability: At the end of September and beginning of October 2026, the award categories and the names of those to be recognised were selected during joint online and in-person consultations with the University of Pécs. Recognition emails were sent out, and joint PF and PTE gifts will be presented on 22 October 2026. According to the joint press statement issued by the University of Pécs and PF, the cooperation will continue.
Results:
The call resulted in a total of 53 relevant, assessable proposals from across all faculties of the University of Pécs. Even the organisers were surprised by the diversity and thoroughness of the submissions.
Some students systematically went through university buildings and produced detailed photographic documentation of the barriers they encountered. Others looked beyond the university itself and included locations around the city frequently visited by students. In one case, a vice-dean assessed the accessibility of their own faculty, while an enthusiastic team of staff members developed their own methodology and systematically collected problems and possible solutions within their faculty over a period of three months.
The proposals included assessments of the accessibility of a university ATM and a lift, as well as an idea to develop a map in Braille to help students and staff with visual impairments find their way around.
One of the most important outcomes of the project was precisely this change in mindset: participants no longer viewed accessibility as outsiders, but became active contributors to shaping their own environment.
The University of Pécs and PF jointly thanked the participants for their outstanding work in the programme. The awards included Cinema City 3D cinema tickets valid throughout Hungary, participation in People First’s special Hidden City Tor-Tour programme, as well as gift packages, university souvenirs and cookbooks offered by the University of Pécs in addition to the project’s original commitments. The recognition was not simply for the number of proposals submitted, but also for the attention, initiative and sense of responsibility with which participants contributed to creating a more accessible university environment.
The University of Pécs is committed to improving accessibility across its institutions, and People First’s community initiative further supported this work by collecting proposals. Some of the identified problems can be resolved through minor interventions, while others require longer-term investments, meaning that the project’s impact extends far beyond its conclusion.
However, the initiative not only laid the groundwork for concrete accessibility improvements, but also introduced a new mindset within the university community. Students and staff were able to experience how they could play an active role in shaping their own environment. In the long term, this mindset can become part of their everyday thinking and be passed on to others, helping to strengthen awareness of social issues, community responsibility and active civic participation.
The project’s innovative community-based approach could serve as a good practice for other cities and higher education institutions to follow. Pécs can once again set an example of how civil society expertise, institutional commitment and active public participation can be brought together to create a more inclusive environment.
The close partnership established between the University of Pécs and People First will not end with the conclusion of the project. Their shared goal is for the University of Pécs to become one of the most accessible higher education institutions in Hungary over time, and for the cooperation developed here to serve as an example for others to follow.
We would like to highlight the value of this project as a model and its adaptability to other civil society–university initiatives. As the project is also significant for Pécs’s city marketing and development towards greater accessibility, we ask the city to share information about it through its own communication channels.
We also ask for wider promotion of the Accessible Pécs Database. This nationally unique initiative, which the People First Public Benefit Association has been running in Pécs since 2018, could deservedly be one of the city’s sources of pride. We would be very pleased if the city leadership paid greater attention to this exemplary work than it currently does, and gave greater prominence to its value and significance in the city’s own communications.
We kindly ask you to forward the above comments and suggestions to the city leadership and the organisational unit responsible for city marketing.
Pécs, 15 October 2026
Pataki Veronika, President,
and the People First Association’s professional team involved in this project:
Almádi Evelin, Berkes Gergő, Kerekes Hilda