Making signals, public buildings, toilets, halls and exits easily identifiable and comprehensible is the goal of “PictOrihuela”, the new project from Orihuela’s municipality to help with Cognitive Accessibility, making the city more comprehensible, accessible, and inclusive for everyone.
The presentation could count on the participation of Eva Lorente Arnás (director of ONCE’s agency in Orihuela), and María Sánchez (from AFA Miguel Hernández), who shared the perspective of people with visual impairments, Alzheimer’s, dementia or cognitive deterioration.
The project’s goal is to create a common visual identity in the municipality’s spaces and to extend progressively the criteria of cognitive accessibility to the coast, neighbourhoods and hamlets. The initiative is planning to incorporate pictograms, clear signage, easy-to-read formats, anticipatory information, and visual and digital supports across municipal spaces, services, and communications.
“For example, when a person is coming to a municipal building, so that they know where it is, so that they can recognise a room, a hall, a toilet or even, logically, an exit”, has explained the councilor.
The project gives special attention to children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) and their families, even though it is intended to ease orientation and autonomy of people affected by Alzheimer’s, dementia, intellectual disability, visual impairment, elderly people, and visitors.
An initiative born from families
PictOrihuela was born from the work of the Observatorio de Familia (the Family’s Observatory) and, specifically, from the Retrato de las familias con discapacidad en Orihuela (the Report on families with incapacities in Orihuela), drafted in 2025 thanks to the support of different entities.
“One of the necessities that struck us was that Orihuela needed to work more on social inclusion, the Observatory took over the baton and this is our grain of sand to provide an answer to this need” stated Portugal.
The contribution of AFA and ONCE
María Sánchez (AFA Miguel Hernández) has highlighted that “PictOrihuela” represents something really important: it means to take a step towards a city that not only is physically accessible, but also easy to comprehend, to navigate and to make use of”.
From AFA comes especially the perspective of people with Alzheimer’s, dementia and cognitive deterioration, for whom “something really easy, such as finding assistance, finding a toilet, orienting in a building or understanding an instruction, can become a difficult impediment”.
On her behalf, Eva Lorente Arnás, director of ONCE’s agency in Orihuela, has signalled that the initiative also has to address the needs of people with visual impairments. “The contribution from our organization ONCE, is that this important initiative is not only dedicated to cognitive disabilities, but can also be useful for our visually impaired community” she explained.
The project aims to go beyond the municipal area
The Department of Family Affairs will extend PictOrihuela to the rest of the municipal areas to ease their possible adhesion, agreeing with the competencies and resources of each department. “We also wish that this project may go beyond the strictly municipal level and may touch the everyday life of families and society” Portugal stated.
To do this, the project is expected to help building direct engagement with local commercial associations and the hospitality sector to raise awareness of the initiative and encourage participation.
In this sense, the councillor emphasized that the Department’s work begins with listening and identifying families’ needs to respond to them, “and if we aren’t able to provide that response, serving as a bridge so that the need gets to where it is needed”, she concluded.