In early June 2023, the European Disability Forum’s Coordinator for the Central and Eastern European region, Phillipa Tucker, visited Slovakia as part of a monitoring visit for the Citi Foundation-funded Ascend project. In Slovakia the project is implemented by the Slovak Disability Council or in Slovakian Národná rada občanov so zdravotným postihnutím v SR (NROZP).
The principal focus of the visit was the monitoring of the ongoing Ascend project: getting in-person status updates, monitoring progress, troubleshooting and discussing emerging opportunities.
10, 9, 8: Fueling up
In Bratislava, Stanislav Sokol and Michaela Hajduková, from the Slovak Disability Council, presented the work’s progress, covering the preparation phase of the online discussion forum, the new podcasts, and the additional upgrades and additions to the website. There have been some exciting new developments!
The website will soon have a donation functionality, which we are hoping will help raise some extra funds for the organization. Essential parts of the website content will be translated into easy-to-read format, and sign language. The progress is already visible on this front. Respective members are consulted to identify the documents they need and want the most. A super consultative way to define the content! When this step is completed, the team will collaborate with professional Slovak sign language translators and the Association for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities to do the translations.
7, 6, 5: Collaborating for impact
The online discussion forum has been developed and is now available online and a young woman with a disability has been hired to monitor and moderate the online discussion forum. The space is soon to start its life with vibrant debate and discussion within the community of persons with disabilities in Slovakia.
NROZP is also preparing a call for its members to express their interest in the free complex accessibility website audits that NROZP will now be offering members under this grant. We estimate 5 audits will be done by the NROZP staffer, who is now the only certified qualified accessibility auditor in Slovakia! Those that wish can also register for trainings from NROZP for their webmasters to learn more about building accessible websites.
The new podcast space from NROZP under the Ascend grant is called ForUm = Fun + Knowledge. Zuzana Rojíková, a Slovak journalist and Ondrej Rosík, a blind radio presenter in Slovakia, are collaborating on the project. Both are young and excited to be working on developing the content with NROZP and we are assured they will take this podcast far and wide across this amazing country.
A team has also been developed to continue and sustain the Facebook posts: Stanislav Sokol, Tibor Köböl, Dušana Blašková and Vanesa Richterová.
4, 3, 2: Participation is key
Two issues of the Mosty inkluzie (Bridges of Inclusion) newsletter are to be rolled out in June and August 2023, with the June issue almost ready for release. The European Parliament of Persons with Disabilities manifesto on inclusion in elections has already been translated and is being disseminated by NROZP through this and other channels, and forms just one part of the content that NROZP is disseminating on the theme of “Inclusion in Elections”.
The Slovak Disability Council Ascend team also explained plans have started for the November youth workshop, and that they are excited to have two young persons with two assistants participating in the European Youth Event from 9 – 11 June in Strasbourg. EDF is funding their travel and accommodation as a means to ensure these young people get the opportunity to learn and share with youth from across Europe.
1, Zero: Lift Off!
So, reporting from Bratislava, we can say that Slovakia is ready for lift-off! All the preparation work is done and you will soon see the results! Well done to the team: Stanislav as project manager works with Michaela, Vanesa, Peter and Branislav.
