First RSG in South Limburg (NL)

On 20 th August 2024 the first regional meeting (RSG) of ORC project took place in Heerlen. A total of 28 stakeholders participated in the meeting including officials from various South Limburg municipalities (tourism and social domain), employees of South Limburg museums, theatres, tourist attractions and nature organizations, and experts by experience with disabilities and/or diverse needs.

Presentation of the project
The meeting kicked off with a presentation by Visit Zuid-Limburg on the contents of the OpenRegioCulture project, the policy document and the first steps to be taken. In the first semester, the project focuses on the state of play of accessibility of culture and nature in South Limburg by means of an online questionnaire for 3 target groups (policy makers, cultural and natural organizations/institutions and experience experts), desk research on existing policy documents and the regional meeting to see where the needs and challenges lie. At the end of the presentation followed a stimulating video about an already implemented initiative for hearing impaired people in the theatre of Heerlen.

Workshop Round 1: state of play
During the first round of the workshop, participants were divided into 4 groups, each with a different focus. Group 1 focused on museums, libraries, theatres and concert halls. Group 2 looked at heritage and monuments, group 3 at tourist attractions and entrepreneurs, and group 4 at nature, natural parks, and trails. All answered the question “How accessible is/are this location(s)?” They did so for three forms of accessibility: physical/architectural accessibility, digital accessibility, and accessibility of communication and information. The groups were given 15 minutes to record their findings. Then they presented them to the other groups.

Workshop round 2: goals and challenges
In the second round of the workshop, the four groups thought about the question “What do we want to achieve in 4 years of OpenRegioCulture?” (goals) and the associated challenges. They did this again for 4 different areas: policy, physical accessibility, digital accessibility and accessibility of communication and information.

Conclusion
From the group's enthusiastic cooperation and appreciation, we can see that this is an important topic that really lives in South Limburg and there is a need to work on improvement of accessibility. It is essential to engage in conversation with experts by experience and to look at new and existing initiatives with an open mind. Awareness is very important here. Among the stakeholders, the first steps for this have also been taken: “The meeting is an eye-opener to start taking these kinds of issues into account a bit more as standard.”