Feel your City - a unique touristic project launched by high school students

Tourism is a notion that can be talked about in many ways. Economic analyzes can be made on the matter, programs can be launched for certain types of tourists, or infrastructure measures can be taken to highlight or facilitate access to a particular touristic destination. Everything so that the beauties or intriguing things in a particular region are seen by a large number of people.            

But what do we do with people that cannot see? This is a question given very little importance by those involved in the phenomenon. For them, blind people are not a priority because they are not the target audience. Well, a group of young people from Cluj are of the opinion that visual deficits should not prevent anyone from enjoying the city they live in or the city they choose to visit.            

Thus, these teenagers have launched a pilot project called Feel your City, through which they intend to transform Cluj into a city open to the blind. This requires some simple adjustments in terms of advertising and presenting the main sights in Cluj. First of all, the touristic objectives should be equipped with audio guides. Then, each monument should be accompanied by an information plate written in Braille and by a miniature layout of the monument. In addition, as part of the project, initiators want to introduce Braille menus in several cafes and restaurants in the city. Finally, perhaps the most important step is that of offering training programs for local guides, so that the presentation of sights is tailored to the needs of this particular type of audience.            

The project has been in progress since the summer of 2017, but since it is an ample project, reaching the objectives proposed above will be stretched across the whole of 2018 and even beyond. As one of the initiators pointed out, such a project is in fact a continuous process by which the population is encouraged to become aware of the existence of disadvantaged groups and to come to their support more often.  

Surse: https://cluju.ro/feel-your-city-proiectul-inedit-al-unor-elevi-clujeni-vor-sa-faca-un-cluj-turistic-si-pentru-persoanele-nevazatoare/