Report of the CIB Expert Seminar on Building Non-Handicapping Environments, Budapest 1991
Technical aids and accessibility problems
Felix M. Uritsky, Club "Contacts", Moscow, Russia
Seminar Contents
Technical aids facilitating access of disabled and elderly people in public,
industrial, medical, and cultural buildings, houses and transport, must
be viewed as an integral part of the architectural environment. The project
suggested implicates the creation of a barrier-free environment so that
disabled persons can move freely from one door to another by introducing
into the environment technical facilities, including: sloping and vertical
lifting machines; automatic doors of different design, and stationary and
sideboard lifts for transport. The project is divided into three parts:
- In part one we suggest the inclusion of accessible elevators and automatic
doors to be designed in buildings and houses most often visited by disabled
people. Also, special lifting devices for transport should be installed.
- The second part implies legislative initiatives geared to change the
Building Regulations and Norms. Standards must be introduced into these
regulations which state that every house must be outfitted with technical
facilities to improve their accessibility for disabled and elderly people.
- The third part is the production of small mechanization devices designed
to create accessibility within houses and apartments (studies, kitchens,
toilets, garages, etc.). Facilities of individual design must be put into
production as well for them to be included in rural homes considering the
individual design of every rural house.
The order of presentation of these three parts does not suggest any order
of priority; each part is equal to the other. They can be carried out in
a parallel or overlapping manner. When grouping the practical steps into
three parts we bore in mind the public awareness and the necessity to change
the attitude of public and official institutions towards the problems of
disabled people.
The present project must be carried out alongside with other projects of
built-in environment reconstruction and construction of new generation buildings
and houses. But there are some elements included into the project which
we must start carrying out without any delay trying to adjust to the existing
infrastructure since the situation with accessibility of the architectural
environment for disabled persons is desperate. Disabled people cannot wait
any longer.
We experts understand that we must work in close cooperation with organizations
of disabled people and individuals to improve the situation and hasten progress.
We should take their experience as a guide since there is no better expert in
disability problems than a disabled person him/herself.
Budapest
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