Since June 2023, project partners are conducting focus groups with people with physical impairments (mainly motor, visual and auditory) and seniors to get to know what prevent them from being visitors of remote rural sites, even if with strong historical and artistical value.
There have been organized focus groups in Spain, Greece and Italy until now, and some common needs have been detected, such as proper lights provided for elderly people, explanatory tablets set at a proper height for people in wheelchairs, and a scale model of the site for blind people.
The investigation is still on, and it is accompanied by the creation of an almost finalized database, on which partners have been working on for months, in search of the staff members and/or rural destination manager that could provide them with the specificalities of the sites with some accessibility issues, but strong cultural value and heritage at a regional or national level.
Nevertheless, the digitalization of 5 selected rural sites is going on, thanks to the German project partner, and the evident needs of these chosen places to be preserved and adjusted to the main project target group’s learning necessities. Soon there will be news about the Italian, Greek and Spanish rural heritage selected among others to become accessible through 360° panorama.
Text and images by Damiana Sudano (Formative Footprint)