17/12/2022
On December 17, 2022, in the sports hall of the Union of Disability Organizations (CSR-Bitola), Mobility Bitola organized a celebration on the occasion of 35 years since the foundation of the association. In a pleasant atmosphere, our members from Bitola, Demir Hisar and Resen, guests from Mobility Skopje and Mobility Shtip, the deputy mayor of the Municipality of Bitola Bojan Bojkoski, the director of PE Parkings - Goran Stepanovski and many of our friends and supporters, looked back at the challenging road of the past three and a half decades, as well as for the activities within the framework of our project "Alternative tourist experience - alternative travel" ALTER TRIP, which is implemented as part of the IPA Interreg Program for cross-border cooperation with Greece 2014-2020 and is co-financed by the European Union and the National Funds of the participating countries.
After the short introduction and the retrospective of the activities so far by the president prim. Dr. Niko Jankov, the project manager Ivona Jankova shared more details about the current project. As the name itself says, the goal of the project is to motivate the transformation of the cross-border region into an accessible tourist destination, because the demand for accessible tourism is constantly increasing, and we have the potential here, we just need to use it.
In the course of the project so far, three studies have been prepared on the legislation and legal obligations for accessibility, the actual situation on the ground in the Pelagonia region, and the guidelines on how to overcome barriers for all persons with disabilities. Of course, technology plays a key role here, especially assistive technology, the benefits of which we all see every day, but due to lack of interest, insufficient information and the high price of ICT tools, they remain largely inaccessible to us. That is why the work on such projects and the financial support that comes with them is of particular importance for our association, because only in this way will we reach the goal faster.
With this project, which is a pilot project and represents an excellent basis for further development, we have taken a small step towards improving accessibility to cultural heritage with tourist signage for the 10 most significant cultural-historical monuments in Bitola, which have already been handed over to the Municipality of Bitola and will be placed in front of: Heracleia, NI Institute and Museum, Officer's Home, Cinema Manaki, Catholic Church, The Clock Tower, Church of St. Demetrius, Isaac Mosque, Yeni Mosque and the Bezisten. Each of these signs contains three-dimensional images of the corresponding landmark and a Braille description in Macedonian and English, but although it is originally intended for visually impaired people, it will be useful for everyone. A QR code is placed on them, which can be scanned with a mobile phone and leads to an application – a tourist guide, which has a short description, audio narration in Macedonian and English, as well as a video in sign language. In addition, printed tourist guides were produced in Braille in Macedonian, English and Greek, with tactile images, also intended for visually impaired people.
The promoted ICT tools for accessible tourism, together with the upcoming trainings for tourism workers, where a manual for designing and creating tourist offers for people with disabilities will be presented, will further increase the tourist offer in our city, but also in the entire cross-border region. All we have to do is continue to work and cooperate especially with the local government, because without adequate infrastructure as a basic prerequisite for accessible tourism, no city will be a completely accessible tourist destination.
At its jubilee celebrations, Mobility Bitola traditionally awards recognition and commendations to its most active members and for successful collaborations with its friends and supporters. The winners this year were the members of the management Board - Lidija Veljanovska from Bitola, Robert Lamanovski from Resen and Olga Nikolovska from Demir Hisar, the current world champion Olivera Nakovska Bikova, our long-time friend prof. Dr. Sasho Kochankovski and the Rector of the University "St. Kliment Ohridski" - Bitola, full professor at FIKT - Bitola and chairman of the board of GAUS Institute - prof. Dr. Igor Nedelkovski, whose support and help in the past dozen years has been priceless.
Commendations for successful cooperation, which we hope will continue at the same pace in the future, this year received: accounting office "Bohemia", MSS - Bitola, our friends from "Slavej" and "Medicus Help", as well as university professors and supporters of Mobility" Bitola – prof. Dr. Marjancho Tanushevski and Prof. Dr. Dushko Josheski. Let this celebration be just a small introduction to the future activities of our association, with the hope that the number of benevolent allies and friends will constantly increase, and with joint efforts we will succeed in realizing as many of our program and statutory goals as possible. Activities continue.
