Paul Parakattel, Kerala Rehab Institute for the Physically Affected, India
"Accessibility" has become a vital theme of discussion in the
developed countries. It is becoming an important issue in the developing
countries too. Considerations on accessibility creation in developing countries
has to be based on certain issues that are prevalent in these countries.
Important among them are:
economic backwardness
false conceptions by society about disability and disabled persons
less initiative on the part of government and voluntary agencies
lack of organized movement of disabled persons
over-population
absence of accessibility legislation
The above-mentioned factors cause obstacles and restrictions for creating
accessibility in developing countries. Therefore, attempts should be made
to deal with these issues along with the program of creating accessibility
in the built environment.
Disabled persons in a developing country also have to approach all places,
public buildings, and be able to enter all public buildings and make use
of all public facilities and environments. Such a need is more intense in
the developing countries since no adequate public assistance is available
for the daily living of persons with disabilities.
Developing countries face several other cardinal issues more vital than
the creation of accessibility for disabled persons. How can you think of
accessibility creation where you do not have enough roads, where the existing
roads do not have footpaths? How can accessibility be an important theme
in a country where around half of the population live under the poverty
line? Accessibility may not be an important issue when you do not have wheelchairs
and mobility is restricted even at home. Satisfaction of basic needs such
as food, shelter and clothing are still to be achieved in our countries.
But in spite of all that, accessibility is of manifold importance to us.
Accessibility creation in a developing country has to take the following
points into consideration:
cost effectiveness,
use of locally available resources,
correspond to the technical aids used,
depend on local living conditions,
style of the building,
customs of the land,
lessons from the developed countries.
Creating accessibility in developing countries has found new dimensions
as a result of our research and study. Community Based Rehabilitation has
become the rehabilitation strategy in the developed countries today. Deinstitutionalization
is repeatedly demanded. This approach is aimed at the realization of the
goals of "full participation" of persons with disabilities in
social life and development, and of "equality". In developing
countries, rehabilitation programs for disabled persons are new. But we
have opted directly for the community-based rehabilitation approach for
two reasons:
Firstly, we had the opportunity to learn from the West that community-based
and family-based rehabilitation is the most ideal rehabilitation approach
and we should not encourage institutionalization. If we opt for institutionalized
rehabilitation programs we will be committing again the mistakes made by
Western countries.
Secondly, institutionalization demands more financial investment and we
cannot afford to invest that amount of money for rehabilitation programs.
Therefore, we have already chosen the community-based rehabilitation approach.
This approach has in turn helped in the creation of accessibility, which
can be illustrated.
CBR has created awareness in the community regarding the cause of the people
with disabilities. The activities that are being organized in the villages
cause the creation of an accessible environment. In this approach a child
with a disability stays at home where his/her presence urges the parents
to make the home accessible for the child. The children with disabilities
are taken to school and the constant presence of disabled students in school
compels the authorities to create accessibility in the school. When people
with disabilities are brought to the hospital, to the church, to the theater,
etc. the concerned authorities will realize that these people should be
provided with accessible environment. Thus we find that the CBR leads obviously
to the creation of accessibility through the conscientiousness of the public.
More than 80 per cent of the people with disabilities in developing countries
live in remote villages. Therefore, creation of accessibility in the rural
areas of the developing countries is of prime importance.
Areas of adaptation
transportation systems; buses, bus stops, trains
pedestrian routes
footpaths and roads
entrance to the buildings
doorways
ramps
staircases and steps
handrails/ropes
windows
elevators
sanitary controls
electric controls
floor surfaces
bathroom and toilet
kitchen area
bed/cot/mat
washing area
Models of accessibility creation
No single access legislation has been enacted in India. But certain general
regulations have been made for physically disabled persons. For example,
two seats are reserved on buses for persons with disabilities. Other regulations
include: concession for travel; job reservation; special employment exchange;
pension for disabled persons; scholarship scheme for disabled students;
and seat reservation in universities.
In developing countries locally available resources should be used for cost
effectivity. Villagers should try to create better roads from the present
rough, rocky, sandy roads. Shopkeepers could be asked to build ramps to
enter their shops with the offer to purchase articles from them. Ramps with
gentle slopes could be made of wood, dirt or rocks. Home adaptation should
be made depending on age and the type and severity of disability. Hand rails
may be fixed to walls and furniture, straw mats or rugs may be spread on
the floor for the crawling disabled, floors should be smooth and firm, doorways
should be extra wide, lavatories should be big enough for wheelchair users
to turn around. These are all examples of creating accessibility for persons
with disabilities.
I, myself, am operating community-based rehabilitation projects in 12 villages.
We are trying to create accessibility in our project areas. You may be surprised
to hear when I say that we have constructed steps to create accessibility.
In our attempt to adapt the village school where our children with disabilities
study, we had to construct steps along the side of the school building so
that the disabled children could get out of the van and easily into the
classrooms. For the sake of convenience, the children with disabilities
are in the classes near to the steps constructed. They are provided with
suitable seats in the classrooms. Toilet facilities are outside the school
building and as a part of our adaptation, we constructed a new toilet adjacent
to the classrooms for easy accessibility. It is our goal to make accessible
all kindergartens, schools, and training centers where we are integrating
the disabled children of our project areas.
One of the main problems for us to construct buildings without steps is
the height of the basement of our buildings. We have heavy rains for more
than five months of the year and the large amount of water stagnates around
the building creating dampness in the walls of the building. Because of
this problem, our buildings have higher basements. We asked our engineers
to find a solution for this problem. They constructed a drainage system
around the building so that the water could flow away, thus the dampness
of the walls could be avoided. Another solution to the same problem is to
give a damp-proof course for the basement, but this solution was found to
be too costly.
Importance of accessibility legislation
Attempts to create accessibility in developing countries has to be supported
by adequate legislation. In several developing countries no legislation
regarding accessibility exists. Therefore, it is the prime duty of the governments
to create necessary legislation to achieve accessibility. Voluntary organizations
of people with disabilities and those for disabled persons, as well as other
welfare organizations should take the initiative and mobilize public opinion
to press the government authorities to enact legislation that would enforce
and fund legally binding standards and regulations to improve accessibility
for people with disabilities. They should make concrete suggestions and
recommendations in this direction.
I have formed a Forum for Disabled Persons, including 63 institutions from
different parts of our state. We hope to exercise pressure on the civil
authorities so that adequate legislation would be enacted for accessibility
creation and for other rehabilitation programs for persons with disabilities.
