On 29-30 January 2025 #AccessRoutes project partners met in Võru, Estonia, to discuss about the project progress and upcoming activities, as well as to participate in the forum “Accessibility and solutions” organised by the project partner – Development Centre of Võru County.
Progress of the project and upcoming activities:
- it has been a year now since the project started and most of the objects (nature trails, museums, cafes, guest houses etc.) in Tartu, Võru, Kurzeme and Vidzeme regions have been inspected and published on mapeirons.eu with photos and detailed accessibility information;
- investment activities on tactile solutions and construction of accessible beach at Lake Būšnieki in Ventspils have been carried out in Kurzeme, as well as contracts signed for tactile solutions at 7 sites in Vidzeme (Zeltini ex-military base, Lake Bilska nature trail, Skaņaiskalns nature trail, Gulbene railway station, Litene manor, Lielezers beach in Limbaži and Madona city path);
- parallely the work continues on the main project activity – development of accessible tourism routes, taking into account the results from inspections carried out so far, as well as carrying out additional accessibility inspections. So far there have been already 7 routes developed for Kurzeme and 5 for Vidzems regions (routes can be found at mapeirons.eu: “Object type → Route”).
While during the forum, projects partners and representatives of local NGOs shared their experience form accessibility inspection visits and informed if and how the work is progressing with the 2024 Vunki Mano hackathon ideas. To remind, the Kurzeme musuems’ team got one of the key prizes at the hackathon with its idea on the “Travelling museum” aimed at facilitating the intrepretation of museum content and its access to all, i.a. people with visual impairment. This idea is now being actively brainstormed through joint cooperation of 6 museums from Kurzeme and soon, with the project support, we will start the work on the production of 9 “Travelling musuem” kits.
Project partners also visited one of the project investment sites in Võru county – the famous Pokuland in Pokumaa – adventure park created based on the book motifs by the writer and illustrator Edgar Valter. Here we measured and shared ideas about what accessibility solutions could be most appropriate ones to ensure convenient access for all.
With the project support this summer in Estonia (5 sites in Tartu and 4 sites in Võru counties) several accessibility solutions will be implemented, i.a. various interesting tactile solutions for people with visual impairment, which ww will definately write about throughout the year!
Project activities are being implemented with the support of the Interreg Estonia – Latvia Programme 2021-2027.
Infomation prepared by:
Project Leader in Kurzeme Planning Region
Alise Lūse
Tālrunis: 26567874, alise.luse@kurzemesregions.lv
