Athena na cestách

During the Medical Fair 2009 in Brno, the project managers of ATHENA on travel, a project that focuses on support of accessible toruism, met at the workshop called Barrier-free travelling in practice. The participants at the workshop pointed out the necessity of making tourist facilities accessible to all, as well as the need of promoting accessible tourism before the representatives of public bodies and state administration of the Czech Republic. 

At the beginning they explained that the idea of accessible tourism is not intended only for physically disabled persons. The project manager Ing. Jarmila Šagátová points out: “The users of accessible tourism include also seniors, pregnant women, or parents with small children as well as travellers with heavy luggage that reduces their mobility.” She added that in Europe only this group of citizens reaches nearly 260 million people.
One of the main discussion topics was the proper understanding of the whole idea of accessible tourism. Mrs Šagátová emphasized that: “We have to realize that the objective is not creating a special offer of tourist services for persons with special needs. It would ultimately result in their segregation exclusion?. On the contrary, we have to adjust the current offer of services so that it is available to all regardless of their age, health condition or any other limitations.” The concept of Design for all that starts to gain ground in Europe has similar goals. It is a general trend that creates universal design of products, services and facilities so that they are available and accessible to all groups of people according to their specific needs, wishes and expectations. Mrs Šagátová adds: “No less important however is further education of people working in the tourist industry regarding their fellow citizens with specific needs.”
 
Ing. Dagmar Lanzová from the Czech National Disability Council of the Czech Republic presented a development programme of mobility for all at the workshop. The programme endeavours to provide barrier-free solutions of connecting routes among buildings of public institutions as well as the traffic infrastructure in towns and villages. Besides that Mrs Lanzová drew attention to the fact that the technical solution of removing the barriers is sometimes rather bad in many Czech towns. Mr. Jaroslav Dembinný from the citizens’ civil? association Trianon introduced the Middle European Group for Integration (MEGFI). We also had the opportunity to hear various pieces of news from the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) international conference in Vienna, and the experience of the travel agency ATIS that offers recreational stays for persons with disabilities.
 
The main objective of the project ATHENA that is financed by the European Social Fund through the Operational programme Human Resources and Employment, is to support the development of human resources and employment in the sphere of accessible tourism in the Czech Republic by applying the experience and inspiration from EU countries. Its activities focus mostly on increasing the awareness and understanding of this topic by employers in the tourist industry, bodies of state administration, educational institutions as well as actual disabled persons, non-governmental organizations uniting or such employing clients, and the general public. The project lasts until May 2011 and takes place mostly in the Moravian-Silesian Region, the Hradec Kralove Region, the South Bohemian Region and in Prague.
 
Further information:
 
Jarmila Šagátová                                                                                           
project manager                                                                                   
Phone No.: 558 335 479                                                                                                                            
e-mail: kazuist@kazuist.cz