Inclusion council for people with disabilities

On August 27, the seventh meeting of the Inclusion Advisory Board for People with Disabilities of the City of Idar-Oberstein took place.

At the start of the meeting, Mr. Stephan Schimpke was introduced as a new member of the Advisory Board. Mr. Schimpke joins the board as a replacement for Mr. Armin Schramm, who resigned from his position after the last meeting before the summer break.

During a discussion of previous projects, Advisory Board Chair Horst Müller praised the cleanliness of the train station and its restroom facilities, particularly the accessible restroom. In the past, the Advisory Board had raised concerns about this issue, which were addressed by the administration.

On August 23, the Lebenshilfe Obere Nahe summer festival took place in Göttschied. The advisory board was represented there with an information booth. People took full advantage of the opportunity to talk; in addition to general information about the Advisory Board’s work, the focus was primarily on complaints about local public transportation that had been brought to the Board’s attention. The Advisory Board chair would therefore like to invite representatives from the regional transit agencies to a roundtable discussion.

The chairperson provided the committee with detailed information about the planned Struth-Bücke new construction project. He believes that the needs of people with disabilities—along with those of all other road users—have been very well taken into account.

On September 14, an event on the topic of inclusion in sports clubs will take place in the conference room. All municipal sports clubs as well as interested guests are invited to attend. The event aims to explore the topic of inclusion in sports in greater depth and highlight ways to better integrate people with special needs into club life. In previous meetings, the positive example of TV Oberstein was already discussed, where advisory board member Chris Joschka Flick launched an inclusive sports group.

An important item on the agenda was the renaming of the Advisory Board’s monthly consultation hour. The term “consultation hour” has caused confusion, as people with disabilities expected to receive professional or legal advice there. However, such advice is reserved for the social service agencies designated for that purpose. Therefore, the Advisory Board decided that the event should henceforth be called “Inclusion Advisory Board in Conversation.” This makes it clear that the event is intended to allow citizens to engage in dialogue with the Advisory Board, learn about its work, foster mutual understanding, and gather ideas.

The next “Inclusion Advisory Board Discussion” will take place on September 17 at 3:00 p.m. in the Glaskastenbüro at Georg-Maus-Straße 2. The next meeting of the Inclusion Advisory Board will take place on September 24, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. in the city administration’s conference room.