Latest news with #Moledo
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
‘The stone is like a sign pointing the way for pilgrims': Adelino Marques's best phone picture
Adelino Marques was taking a morning walk on the coast near his holiday home in Moledo, north-west Portugal, when he took this image. 'It's the northernmost beach in Portugal and is considered one of the most beautiful in the country,' Marques says. 'It also has two unique features: a fort in the middle of the sea, which served as a defence against various attacks over the centuries and is now a national monument, and the hill you can see in the background of this image, Monte de Santa Tecla. It's in the neighbouring country of Spain, but is nevertheless an icon of this beach.' In the foreground of the image is a rock that echoes the shape of the hill, with a stone 'placed atop in a way that would seem impossible. Pilgrims pass through this area every day to walk to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, a pilgrimage that covers around 500 miles [805km] and takes about a month to complete. The stone is like a sign, like a small mound pointing as if to say 'That way'.' Marques says that, since the 1970s, he has developed his own film negatives in a darkroom at his home in Gondomar, just outside central Porto. He thinks this has given him a preference for black-and-white images, no matter how they're created. In this instance, he used the Hipstamatic app on his iPhone to apply a monochrome filter. 'It allows me to better contrast the light and shapes,' Marques says. 'Colour can be distracting. This filter helped to convey the serenity and resilience of the pilgrims who pass this way.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
‘The stone is like a sign pointing the way for pilgrims': Adelino Marques's best phone picture
Adelino Marques was taking a morning walk on the coast near his holiday home in Moledo, north-west Portugal, when he took this image. 'It's the northernmost beach in Portugal and is considered one of the most beautiful in the country,' Marques says. 'It also has two unique features: a fort in the middle of the sea, which served as a defence against various attacks over the centuries and is now a national monument, and the hill you can see in the background of this image, Monte de Santa Tecla. It's in the neighbouring country of Spain, but is nevertheless an icon of this beach.' In the foreground of the image is a rock that echoes the shape of the hill, with a stone 'placed atop in a way that would seem impossible. Pilgrims pass through this area every day to walk to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, a pilgrimage that covers around 500 miles [805km] and takes about a month to complete. The stone is like a sign, like a small mound pointing as if to say 'That way'.' Marques says that, since the 1970s, he has developed his own film negatives in a darkroom at his home in Gondomar, just outside central Porto. He thinks this has given him a preference for black-and-white images, no matter how they're created. In this instance, he used the Hipstamatic app on his iPhone to apply a monochrome filter. 'It allows me to better contrast the light and shapes,' Marques says. 'Colour can be distracting. This filter helped to convey the serenity and resilience of the pilgrims who pass this way.'
Euractiv
01-07-2025
- Business
- Euractiv
Disability groups hopeful about EU act to make smartphones, apps more accessible
Brussels wants ATMs, smartphones, websites and other services to be more accessible, and after years of campaigning, disability groups remain cautiously optimistic that change is on the way. Under the European Accessibility Act (EEA), which was originally proposed in 2019, EU countries must strive to make their services such as websites, emergency numbers, banking, and ticket machines easier to use. Around 100 million people in the EU – roughly one in four adults – have a form of disability. As of last Saturday, companies and public services in the EU must ensure their products or services comply with the EAA or risk fines. Train ticket machines, for example, will have to come with audio guidance. Six years since the Commission first announced it was working on the legislation, only about a quarter of relevant EU businesses are fully compliant, Antoine Fobe from the European Blind Union told Euractiv, adding that most will be late. Fobe welcomed the change, saying it will make a tangible difference for people with disabilities – especially those who are visually impaired – but warned that it must not become 'compliance window dressing.' Alejandro Moledo, deputy director of the European Disability Forum, echoed the concern. The Commission needs to check that "the law is being applied on the ground," he said. In 2024, the Commission referred Bulgaria to the EU Court of Justice for failing to transpose the EAA into national law. Ot her countries, including Germany, Croatia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Slovenia, and Greece, face additional procedures for missing parts of the criteria, Moledo said. At a panel event hosted by AccessibleEU, manufacturers pointed to difficulties in creating a unified accessibility standard for payment systems, especially as many disabled users rely on smartphones and services like Apple Pay. Moledo added that the law could have gone further. The current scope, he said, is narrower than what the European Disability Forum had campaigned for before 2019. Meanwhile, the European Parliament's health committee in June backed a report from Left MEP Giorgos Georgiou calling for stronger disability rights protections – including improving access to new technologies. (de, jp)
