Project title: Cross-Border Language Accessibility in Public Life (Language APL)
Year: 2025
Brief description: In the everyday life of border regions, multilingualism is both a natural condition and a continuous challenge. Linguistic uncertainty, a changing legal environment and insufficient access to information often prevent communities from confidently exercising their language rights. The initiative was therefore implemented not merely as a research project, but also as a practical intervention aimed at strengthening linguistic accessibility in public life in the region.
The project activities covered several interconnected areas, including the preparation of bilingual legal publications, the provision of legal assistance and professional consultation, and comprehensive fieldwork involving institutions, local governments, businesses and civil society organisations. The examination of the physical and online linguistic environment, expert interviews and the mapping of multilingual communication practices made it possible to develop solutions responding to actual needs. As part of the initiative, multilingual institutional signs in Ukrainian, Hungarian and English, including Braille inscriptions, were produced and installed. Support was also provided for improving the linguistic accessibility of businesses, while organisations and individuals implementing effective good practices were recognised.
The process did not end with data collection. Professional meetings, public events and an international conference provided opportunities to share experiences and engage in dialogue with practices from other regions. In this way, linguistic accessibility was addressed both as a local issue and as part of a broader cross-border context.
Research organiser/supporter: Tisza European Territorial Cooperation; Charitable Foundation “For the Transcarpathian Hungarian College”; Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian University; Hodinka Antal Linguistic Research Centre; Identity Foundation; implemented with the support of the Interreg VI-A NEXT Hungary–Slovakia–Romania–Ukraine Programme 2021–2027 (HUSKROUA/23/S/3.1/011).
Publications:
Réka Máté, Kornélia Hires-László (2025): Beyond the signs: multimodal approaches in analysing multilingual landscapes in Transcarpathia (Ukraine) [Рейка Матей – Корнелія Гіреш-Ласлов: Поза межами знаків: мультимодальні підходи до аналізу багатомовних ландшафтів на Закарпатті (Україна)] Acta AcademiaeBeregsasiensis, Philologica 2025/3 63–86. DOI 10.58423/2786-6726/2025-3-63-86 https://aab-philologica.kmf.uz.ua/aabp/article/view/120
Kiss Anita (2026): Ukrajnai menekültek nyelvi akadálymentesítésének lehetőségei Magyarországon [Кіш Аніта: Мовна доступність для українських біженців в Угорщині] Acta Academiae Beregsasiensis, Philologica 2026/1: 9–25 DOI10.58423/2786-6726/2026-1-9-25 https://aab-philologica.kmf.uz.ua/aabp/article/view/134/129
Ingrid Lőrinc 2025: THE BACKGROUND AND IMPACT OF DECENTRALIZATION IN UKRAINE ON THE COUNTRY’S EUROPEAN INTEGRATION №171/2025 Norwegian Journal of development of the International Science pp. 126–130. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18070653
Lőrinc, I., & Vig, A. (2026). Digitális többnyelvűség a határ menti gazdaságban: A kárpátaljai magyar kisvállalkozások online kommunikációja. Acta Academiae Beregsasiensis, Philologica, 5(2), 90–113. https://doi.org/10.58423/2786-6726/2026-2-90-113