Article of the Week

Towards a Barrier-free Environment

Deepak Sahay is wary of traveling alone. Not because he is ashamed of his speech or aural disabilities. But because of the absence of electronic displays at the city’s railway stations never allows the 55-year-old former TISCO supervisor to be confident of boarding the right train at the right time.

For George Abraham, the visually impaired CEO of an NGO, the grievances are closer home. He says that except for the Delhi Metro and a few city buildings, most elevators don’t have announcements that would enable the visually challenged to figure out which floor the lift is on.

Sahay and Abraham are just two members of India’s mammoth community of disabled. Estimates put their total figure at six per cent of the total population, or 60 million. But how many of them do you see on the buses in the Metro or at the movies?

National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) head Javed Abidi says that the ground reality hasn’t improved a decade after the enactment of the Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Opportunities) Act. He says that they have not understood access. If incorporated, it is limited to ramps with steep gradients for wheelchair users but there are no guide blocks for the visually challenged or loop induction facilities (that enhance volume) for the hearing-impaired. The NDMC claims its fancy toilets are disabled-friendly but a wheelchair can’t go inside one.

International norms put the ideal height: length ramps ratio at 1:12. Most ramps in the city have a gradient of 1:5, which hinders and may even be dangerous for wheelchair-users. Even the Metro, touted as a shining example of disability-sensitive planning, is only partially accessible, with just one elevator for the disabled even at the multiple-exit stations.

Abidi asked that how would a disabled person who, say, got down at the Central Secretariat station, travel to a ministry on the other side of the platform? When this anomaly was brought to the notice of the authorities, they said the number of wheelchair-users in the Metro was low. He said that the point was why was it so?

Top

DMRC chief E. Sreedharan argued that the number of elevators for wheelchair-users was sufficient at the moment. He said that they had not come across wheelchair-users being inconvenienced at Metro stations. The number of user had to reach a critical mass. If the demand increases, they are not averse to providing more elevators. He said that one should not forget that the Delhi Metro was the only one in the world to designate space for wheelchairs in the coaches. Even their lifts have Braille and tactile buttons and at the end of the day, the Metro is also funded by the taxpayer.

There is more to access than wheelchair accessibility, says noted urban planner and dean of the School of Planning and Architecture KT Ravindran. He says that the Delhi Urban Arts Commission has been insisting on facilities for the disabled in all the public projects. Still a, number of government building discourage access.

Celebrated architect Pradeep Sachdev is still grateful to NGO Samarthya for pointing out the absence of a disabled-friendly toilet at Dilli Haat while the project was still at the planning stages. He says that wheelchair-accessible toilets and lifts, accessible upper floors and special workstations can make life easier for the disabled.

Samarthya founder Sanjeev Sachdev, himself a wheelchair-user, advocates universal design that benefits the maximum number of people. He says that a mobile with messaging facilities for the speech impaired and ring-tones that help the blind identify their callers is a good example of universal design. He added that people don’t realize there is a connection between disability and old age: universal design addresses both.

Morphogenesis architecture studio MD Manit Rastogi suggests steps to make a built environment disabled-friendly - Lifts and toilets should be sized so that wheelchairs can enter them. Especially designed grabbers should be placed at specified heights to help the disabled to move from the wheelchair to the lavatory.

Top

Plan on paper

Access to public places, utilities and services, is a fundamental; right guaranteed in Article 15 of the Constitution, says Anuradha Mohit, Special Rapporteur (Disability) with the National Human Rights Commission and visually challenged herself. She said that steps meant to make a building environment barrier free have wheelchair-users in mind. Few buildings have sound signals in elevators, and fewer have warning blocks that would help the blind.

What the law says:

Chapter 8 of the Person with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 talks about the responsibilities of the government in enhancing access for the disabled. The patient sections:

Establishments in the transport sector shall, within the limits of their economic capacity and development for the benefit of persons with disabilities, take special measures to

  1. adapt rail compartments, buses, vessels and aircrafts in such a way as to permit easy access to such persons;
  2. adapt toilets in rail compartments, vessels, aircrafts, and waiting rooms in such a way as to permit the wheelchair users to use them conveniently

The Government and the local authorities shall, within the limits of their economic capacity and development, provide for

  1. Installation of auditory signals at red lights in the public roads for the benefits of persons with visual handicaps;
  2. Creating curb cuts and slopes to pavements for easy access of wheelchairs;
  3. engraving the surface of the zebra crossing for the blind or for persons with low vision

Source: The rights of passage. The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 17 June 29006.

Top