People with disabilities are allowed to enter Grabštejn Castle
We could see this during the workshop "Barrier-free monuments, vision or reality?"
The opening speech was taken by the chairwoman of the Disway Association for the support of disabled people's travel, Mrs. Mgr. Jana Panáčková. The project partners from the German side, Ms. Juliane Wojan, MGO mbH and Susanne Mannschott, ZSG mbH, also said a few words. They were most pleased that this important topic brought together under one roof people who can not only contribute to the discussion with their expertise and experience, but also want to change something for the better.
We are glad that Mr. Mgr. Miloš Krčmář, Director of the National Heritage Institute Liberec. He explained to us with a few examples how this organization tries to maintain the invaluable historical value of monuments and at the same time to listen to the needs of the general public, which certainly includes people with disabilities.
Mgr. Věra Ozogánová, castellan of Grabštejn Castle. Every visitor is warmly welcome here, but it is better for a disabled person to make an appointment in advance so that the visit to the castle is as pleasant as possible for them. It is not only about wheelchair users, but also the blind and not least the deaf. Each disability requires different attention and aids, such as prepared ramps or a haptic model of the castle.
In another engaging lecture, Ing. arch. Tomáš Efler explained how even the folk architecture of the sub-buildings can be made accessible to the disabled. How did people live in the past centuries and what did such a wooden homestead look like inside? This atmosphere is best experienced during various folk festivals, which take place, for example, in Merboltice.
Quality and wheelchair accessible accommodation is an integral part of travel. In his presentation, the speaker Mr. Markus Kranich introduced us to the possibilities for people with disabilities at Windmühle Seifhennersdorf.
We are glad that Mr. Petr Hazuza from Konta Bariéry was also able to join us online. He listened to the presentations of all the speakers and contributed to the discussion with insightful comments, such as the importance of regularly updating the mapped data.
Mrs. Mgr. Kateřina Novotná from the Prague Wheelchair Association has many years of experience in mapping the accessibility of buildings in Prague.
She mentioned, for example, the excellent accessibility of the National Museum. On the other hand, we could see ridiculous examples of how architectural elements that might make sense on paper do not make sense in real life. Sometimes, on the contrary, it means a big obstacle for people with disabilities.
The ramps and the inconspicuous elevator at Grabštejn Castle are, however, a good example of how barriers can be solved even in a historical building.
Together with our partners, we believe that the Disway Trails mobile app, which was presented at the workshop by our developers Tomáš Hluštík and Tomáš Bien, will be a boon for the disabled community. The response has been very positive and we hope that this app will give people with disabilities the courage to discover places not only in the Czech-German border region, but also in other interesting tourist regions.
It was a very nice and successful day. Hopefully we managed to connect the right people to help remove the barriers that are still present and make travel easier for those affected.
Maruška Harcubová