The articles written by the PÚBLICO Brasil team are written in the variant of the Portuguese language used in Brazil.
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Estimates indicate that more than 1.1 million Brazilians (10.9% of the population) have at least one physical disability and more than 2 million people are over 65 years old. The data is contained in the portal Access to Culture and no Strategy and Planning Office from the Government of Portugal, based on the 2021 demographic census, in a chapter on accessibility processes. According to the text, many of these people are prevented from freely participating in the country’s cultural life, due to the lack of access conditions.
It was based on these findings that engineer Paulo Nelson Araújo, 54 years old, from São Paulo, brought the company from Brazil to Portugal Casa do Braillespecialized in visual and tactile signage, in which only through touch it is possible to include people with visual impairments in cultural, educational or image-based environments.
In Covilhã, in the interior of Portugal, Araújo met Elisabet Carceller, 45, from Barcelona, in a café owned by the Spanish woman in the center of the city, which is in Beira Baixa and is the gateway to Serra da Estrela. He, a specialist in accessibility projects and director of Casa do Braille, in Brazil, and she, an art historian and specialist in museography, discovered that they could transform the city’s museum into a reference for accessible tourism in Portugal.
With the aim of telling how human occupation occurred in the region where the city is located today, from prehistory to the present, the Covilhã Museum opened on July 29, 2021. The following year, it won the Museum of the Year award from Portuguese Association of Museumswhich drew attention to the issue of accessibility in public buildings, cultural establishments and private institutions in Portuguese territory.
This year, the Covilhã Museum became the first Portuguese institution to be nominated as a finalist for the European Museum of the Year Award, from the organization European Museum Forum (EMF), created in London, England, which has 45 member countries and headquarters in Portimão, Algarve. It competed with famous museums, such as the Louvre and d’Orsay, in France, and the Reina Sofia, in Madrid.
Create accessibility
The initiative to break the situation of lack of accessibility in public places in the country, and especially in Covilhã, began six years ago, with a series of coincidences that contributed to the success of the endeavor. The engineer says that his company makes the pieces based on Elisabet’s descriptions and monitoring, which includes signs on the floors, tactile signs and speaking maps.
The fact that the historian’s husband, Portuguese architect Pedro Seixo Rodrigues, 47, is a professor at the University of Beira Interior and knows the engineer’s son, Brazilian Leonardo Araújo, 26, who studies at this educational institution, helped bring the parties closer together. to carry out such an initiative.
It was at the café and cowork space A Tentadora, in the city center, that the group discussed how to create a fully accessible museum, which would be an example for the entire country. The combination of experiences and knowledge of those involved was fundamental to the development of the project, which ended up becoming a reference in the area of accessibility in Portugal.
Elisabet, who has lived in Portugal for 20 years and chose to live in Covilhã 12 years ago, speaks about the museum with passion and commitment. “We carried out the project, from the beginning, with a lot of dedication”, he emphasizes, adding that the award received by the institution is essentially due to accessibility.
According to the historian, “the award jury revealed that the museum is an example of good practices in the cultural area and, with the visibility obtained, I think that other cities will follow the same path”, she believes. To allow people with disabilities to enjoy the museum, it includes three-dimensional replicas in relief and in Braille. She says that the institution has already received several groups with visual problems and other limitations.
Elisabet believes that the creation of accessible institutions should not depend on the initiative of a few citizens. For her, the Brazilian Parliament will have to mobilize to create appropriate legislation “that makes an impact” and meets the needs of thousands of people prevented from accessing culture.
The representative of Casa do Braille in Portugal, Ricardo Gonçalves, 57, has the task of expanding the company’s operations and introducing the culture of accessibility in Portuguese municipalities. The Municipal Councils of Lisbon, Santarém, Loulé, Reguengos de Monsaraz, Alcanena and Funchal have already been called to adopt similar projects.
According to the objectives outlined by the Acesso Cultura portal, declared a public utility in the country, the promotion of accessibility must occur in the physical, social and intellectual spheres, for the full cultural participation of citizens. To this end, the institution defends the following objectives, to be implemented in all areas of culture:
- Place issues related to access — physical, social and intellectual — and inclusion at the center of reflection and practice in the cultural sector;
- Contribute to the technical preparation of cultural professionals in matters of access and inclusion in order to promote change on the ground;
- Promote dialogue and reflection on issues of access and inclusion in public forums;
- Intervene publicly in defense of the right of access to culture and people’s cultural rights.
