I have lived in Bavaria for 17 years, and I have noticed that Passau lacks accessibility. Many people are not aware of the communication needs of people with hearing loss in Passau and the surrounding area. So it was a long and difficult search for me to find good solutions. When the social worker moved to Austria, I realised once again how poor accessibility is here, especially compared with bigger cities such as Munich, Nuremberg, Berlin or Hamburg.
Last year I joined the CSU, the CSA, CSUnet and the Forum for People with Disabilities. There I took part in many political events and training courses run by the Hanns Seidel Foundation and gained valuable experience. I also found that there are hardly any sign language interpreters: only one single interpreter was available. I made contact with politicians so that we could find good solutions together. It was important to me to involve not only myself but also the representatives for employees with severe disabilities.
I attended training for disability representatives and got in touch with several of them. Finally, I spoke with two CSU city councillors, Georg Steiner and Prof. Holm Putzke, communicating through a remote sign language interpreter. Holm Putzke asked me to draw up a five-point plan to improve accessibility in Passau. I worked hard on this plan and sent it to him.
We agreed that Mr Putzke, who is himself a CSU city councillor in Passau, would visit the deaf association “Dreiflüsse” e. V. Passau on 1 March, and that we would take photos together. I also started a petition for accessibility in Passau, which many people supported. During his visit to the association, we talked in detail about the situation of people with hearing loss in Passau and the barriers they face. He listened carefully while the interpreter translated everything. He plans to publish a newspaper article on the topic and to present it to the city council together with the petition and the five-point plan. I am excited to see how things develop.
From the Passauer Neue Presse (PNP), 8 March 2025:
A petition to the city, the district and the Bavarian state parliament was adopted, calling for stronger measures for inclusion.
The next step
I want churches, as well as public places such as museums and galleries, to offer more accessibility. For example, QR codes could be placed at different spots in churches. After scanning a QR code, a sign language video would appear. This would help not only people with hearing loss in Passau and the region, but also many tourists from different countries. Hearing people would also have the chance to learn sign language. This would promote linguistic diversity in Passau. After all, we live in the 21st century.
In the future, I want to create normality between hearing people and people with hearing loss. I am working hard towards this goal.
Update, October 2026: Today I am not a member of the city council, but I follow its work closely as an observer. I work with Holm Putzke’s FDP team, together with Georg Steiner and Sebastian Frankenberger. I regularly check whether places and services in Passau are really accessible, and I keep fighting for improvements.
This article was first published in German: Meine erste politische Aktivität: Barrierefreiheit in Passau verbessern
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