Ability Forum

[Vic]

The road to progress is yet to be made accessible to all



It’s only one small step for most of mankind. A young couple, holding hands and chatting animatedly, climbs it without even noticing. They are followed by a noisy gaggle of teenagers, and a family of four, all on their way into one of the several malls that are a part of Delhi’s social map. But for 38-year-old Shivani Gupta, the difference between self-sufficiency and dependence lies in that one step.

A wheelchair user for the past 16 years, Gupta remains astounded that despite growing awareness of issues of accessibility, architects and builders fail to take the needs of the disabled into account while planning buildings.

“The majority of buildings across India have no access for people with disabilities and, if they do, chances are they do so in areas such as the basement parking,” says Gupta, who has often had to be lifted and carried into buildings. “Buildings should be made in a way that ensures accessibility for everyone, and with dignity.” It was this frustration that motivated Gupta to start AccessAbility, an organisation that specialises in design and employment solutions for the disabled.

As India’s construction boom builds the nation’s future in chrome and glass, easy access to, within and outside the workplace continues to overlook the physically challenged. Tireless lobbying by disability rights groups has led to a growing awareness about the importance of accessibility in public buildings.

However, “most builders simply install a ramp at the entrance of a building to indicate accessibility”, says Vikas Sharma, a Delhi-based access consultant. “For many people, that is enough to signal an ‘accessible building’. Little do they realise that a lot more goes into make a building universal.” Details such as floor surfaces, correct lighting and appropriate signages tend to be ignored.

It’s Legal

There is an absence of a singular and well-defined regulation, which makes it mandatory for all buildings, whether public or private, to be completely accessible to people with disabilities. The onus, therefore, falls on various construction companies and real estate developers to ensure their buildings incorporate the principles of universal design.

“We do have a company policy in place that requires all our buildings to have access features for the disabled,” says a spokesperson for the DLF group, one of the country’s leading real estate developers. He adds, “All those who undertake the construction of any of our buildings are required to comply with the policy.” The spokesperson, however, refused to elaborate on the specifics of the said policy.

According to Section 46 of The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, “appropriate governments and local authorities shall, within the limits of their economic capacity and development, provide for — ramps in public buildings; adaptation of toilets for wheel chair users; Braille symbols and auditory signals in elevators or lifts; ramps in hospitals, primary health centres and other medical care and rehabilitation institutions.”

While the phrase ‘within the limits of their economic capacity’ can, on occasion, throw a spanner in the works, the Act has been effective over all, says the Deputy Commissioner for Persons with Disability, T.D. Dhariyal.

The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) amended building bye-laws in August 2000 to ensure all new construction was barrier-free. But buildings and other infrastructure such as roads (barring the national highways) is essentially a state subject. Municipal bodies have the primary responsibility of regulating all building activity across the country, and buildings are regulated by municipal bye-laws.

The National Building Code of India, 2005, prepared by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) acts as a guide for most State and Municipal bodies. Annex D (Clause 12.21) highlights special requirements for making public buildings accessible to people with physical disabilities. The BIS requirements apply to ‘all buildings and facilities used by the public’ but exclude private residences. The building code, , includes a detailed description of the kind of ramps, entrances, doors, windows, floor surfaces as well as sanitary facilities that need to be in place in a building to allow proper and equitable access to the disabled. However only seventeen states and union territories have amended their bye-laws to include accessibility until now.

But amending the bye-laws is only the first step. “There needs to be an effective monitoring agency in place,” says Dhariyal. “All municipal bodies need to have an ‘access officer’ whose sole responsibility will be to ensure that all buildings within his or her jurisdiction have all the access features, both during planning and implementation stages.”

It’s not enough to get clearance on paper says Dhariyal. “There needs to be a nodal authority to monitor accessibility features for all public buildings, whether they are government-owned or not.” At the moment, Uttar Pradesh is probably the only state that has managed to link access approval to policy, says Sharma.

A Fair Way To Go

Dhariyal notes that the Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities has noticed a marked improvement in buildings since CPWD amended the bye-laws. “We have received fewer complaints about buildings that have come up in the last couple of years,” he adds.

Sharma agrees that, more often than not, a lot of the new construction, especially that undertaken by the bigger firms, does have at least the structural requirements for access in place. “What continues to pose a problem are the interiors, and building maintenance issues,” he says.

For instance, in the capital’s newest and most expensive mall, Select Citywalk, although there are disabled-friendly toilets with the correct door width and seat height, they are easily missed as they are not clearly signposted. Often, grab rails, an essential feature of a disabled-friendly toilet, are also missing. “This shows that while the developers have their hearts in the right place, they fail to follow through on the details that would make a mall truly accessible,” says Sharma.

Ramps, handrails and talking lifts are among the features most real estate developers have implemented successfully. “Getting into most buildings is no longer such a problem for people with disabilities,” says Sharma.

What is less thought through is evacuation in times of emergency. “Hardly any buildings have a ‘refuge area’, a fireproof room that can buy people time, near the fire escape routes, nor do they have ‘evac chairs’, which can slide down staircases,” says Sharma. This effectively closes escape routes for most people with disabilities, and leaves them with no way out but to be carried down the stairs by some one else.” Since a company would be aware of how many of its employees are disabled, they can create escape routes on a reactive model,” explains Sharma. However, as literally anyone can ‘walk’ into public spaces, such as malls, there is no way to know how many people with which disabilities are in the building at the time of an emergency. “These places need to implement an anticipatory model, which is far more comprehensive.”

A walk through most new buildings highlights not so much the lack of intention, but weak implementation of policies. At best, the initiatives are staggered. Qualified professionals, trained to pay attention to details, have to be hired. A barrier-free environment needs to be thought out from the time a building is planned.

It is in these new chrome and glass buildings that the future of corporate India is unfolding. To ensure that this future is equitable, the construction companies must, even as they rush to build swanky new office complexes, luxury hotels and those ultimate Meccas of consumerism — shopping malls, take into account the needs of the physically disabled “I have yet to come across any mall in the city that has a trial room, which has been adapted for the disabled,” argues Gupta, “I too would like to try on clothes before I buy them.”

What The World Is Doing

Adoption of universal design — a process that ensures that all environments and products are usable by all people with dignity to the greatest extent — in creation of public buildings and spaces is essential for ensuring that people with disabilities have equitable access to all buildings. Experience has shown the importance of appropriate legislation, public awareness as well as economic resources in ensuring accessibility to public spaces.

Over the past two decades, several countries have passed laws to make accessibility provisions in public buildings mandatory. The US has the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 while access to public facilities by persons with disabilities is guaranteed in the Constitution of Thailand. Countries such as Malaysia, Jordan and South Africa have all, under pressure from civil rights groups, amended their national and municipal building bye-laws to ensure accessibility. In the case of India, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) amended the building byelaws in August 2000 and, along with the Office of the Chief Commissioner or Persons with Disabilities, has issued the guidelines for building a barrier free environment.

But, like other countries, accessibility in India too continues to be seen as a constraint on the design process and many architects and builders are still resistant to it. ‘Minor’ problems such as incorrect angle of ramps, narrow width of sidewalks, poor signage underscore the importance of compliance in ensuring universal access.

Source: Business World

_________________
Vikas

AccessAbility

The road to progress is yet to be made accessible to all



It’s only one small step for most of mankind. A young couple, holding hands and chatting animatedly, climbs it without even noticing. They are followed by a noisy gaggle of teenagers, and a family of four, all on their way into one of the several malls that are a part of Delhi’s social map. But for 38-year-old Shivani Gupta, the difference between self-sufficiency and dependence lies in that one step.

A wheelchair user for the past 16 years, Gupta remains astounded that despite growing awareness of issues of accessibility, architects and builders fail to take the needs of the disabled into account while planning buildings.

“The majority of buildings across India have no access for people with disabilities and, if they do, chances are they do so in areas such as the basement parking,” says Gupta, who has often had to be lifted and carried into buildings. “Buildings should be made in a way that ensures accessibility for everyone, and with dignity.” It was this frustration that motivated Gupta to start AccessAbility, an organisation that specialises in design and employment solutions for the disabled.

As India’s construction boom builds the nation’s future in chrome and glass, easy access to, within and outside the workplace continues to overlook the physically challenged. Tireless lobbying by disability rights groups has led to a growing awareness about the importance of accessibility in public buildings.

However, “most builders simply install a ramp at the entrance of a building to indicate accessibility”, says Vikas Sharma, a Delhi-based access consultant. “For many people, that is enough to signal an ‘accessible building’. Little do they realise that a lot more goes into make a building universal.” Details such as floor surfaces, correct lighting and appropriate signages tend to be ignored.

It’s Legal

There is an absence of a singular and well-defined regulation, which makes it mandatory for all buildings, whether public or private, to be completely accessible to people with disabilities. The onus, therefore, falls on various construction companies and real estate developers to ensure their buildings incorporate the principles of universal design.

“We do have a company policy in place that requires all our buildings to have access features for the disabled,” says a spokesperson for the DLF group, one of the country’s leading real estate developers. He adds, “All those who undertake the construction of any of our buildings are required to comply with the policy.” The spokesperson, however, refused to elaborate on the specifics of the said policy.

According to Section 46 of The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, “appropriate governments and local authorities shall, within the limits of their economic capacity and development, provide for — ramps in public buildings; adaptation of toilets for wheel chair users; Braille symbols and auditory signals in elevators or lifts; ramps in hospitals, primary health centres and other medical care and rehabilitation institutions.”

While the phrase ‘within the limits of their economic capacity’ can, on occasion, throw a spanner in the works, the Act has been effective over all, says the Deputy Commissioner for Persons with Disability, T.D. Dhariyal.

The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) amended building bye-laws in August 2000 to ensure all new construction was barrier-free. But buildings and other infrastructure such as roads (barring the national highways) is essentially a state subject. Municipal bodies have the primary responsibility of regulating all building activity across the country, and buildings are regulated by municipal bye-laws.

The National Building Code of India, 2005, prepared by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) acts as a guide for most State and Municipal bodies. Annex D (Clause 12.21) highlights special requirements for making public buildings accessible to people with physical disabilities. The BIS requirements apply to ‘all buildings and facilities used by the public’ but exclude private residences. The building code, , includes a detailed description of the kind of ramps, entrances, doors, windows, floor surfaces as well as sanitary facilities that need to be in place in a building to allow proper and equitable access to the disabled. However only seventeen states and union territories have amended their bye-laws to include accessibility until now.

But amending the bye-laws is only the first step. “There needs to be an effective monitoring agency in place,” says Dhariyal. “All municipal bodies need to have an ‘access officer’ whose sole responsibility will be to ensure that all buildings within his or her jurisdiction have all the access features, both during planning and implementation stages.”

It’s not enough to get clearance on paper says Dhariyal. “There needs to be a nodal authority to monitor accessibility features for all public buildings, whether they are government-owned or not.” At the moment, Uttar Pradesh is probably the only state that has managed to link access approval to policy, says Sharma.

A Fair Way To Go

Dhariyal notes that the Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities has noticed a marked improvement in buildings since CPWD amended the bye-laws. “We have received fewer complaints about buildings that have come up in the last couple of years,” he adds.

Sharma agrees that, more often than not, a lot of the new construction, especially that undertaken by the bigger firms, does have at least the structural requirements for access in place. “What continues to pose a problem are the interiors, and building maintenance issues,” he says.

For instance, in the capital’s newest and most expensive mall, Select Citywalk, although there are disabled-friendly toilets with the correct door width and seat height, they are easily missed as they are not clearly signposted. Often, grab rails, an essential feature of a disabled-friendly toilet, are also missing. “This shows that while the developers have their hearts in the right place, they fail to follow through on the details that would make a mall truly accessible,” says Sharma.

Ramps, handrails and talking lifts are among the features most real estate developers have implemented successfully. “Getting into most buildings is no longer such a problem for people with disabilities,” says Sharma.

What is less thought through is evacuation in times of emergency. “Hardly any buildings have a ‘refuge area’, a fireproof room that can buy people time, near the fire escape routes, nor do they have ‘evac chairs’, which can slide down staircases,” says Sharma. This effectively closes escape routes for most people with disabilities, and leaves them with no way out but to be carried down the stairs by some one else.” Since a company would be aware of how many of its employees are disabled, they can create escape routes on a reactive model,” explains Sharma. However, as literally anyone can ‘walk’ into public spaces, such as malls, there is no way to know how many people with which disabilities are in the building at the time of an emergency. “These places need to implement an anticipatory model, which is far more comprehensive.”

A walk through most new buildings highlights not so much the lack of intention, but weak implementation of policies. At best, the initiatives are staggered. Qualified professionals, trained to pay attention to details, have to be hired. A barrier-free environment needs to be thought out from the time a building is planned.

It is in these new chrome and glass buildings that the future of corporate India is unfolding. To ensure that this future is equitable, the construction companies must, even as they rush to build swanky new office complexes, luxury hotels and those ultimate Meccas of consumerism — shopping malls, take into account the needs of the physically disabled “I have yet to come across any mall in the city that has a trial room, which has been adapted for the disabled,” argues Gupta, “I too would like to try on clothes before I buy them.”

What The World Is Doing

Adoption of universal design — a process that ensures that all environments and products are usable by all people with dignity to the greatest extent — in creation of public buildings and spaces is essential for ensuring that people with disabilities have equitable access to all buildings. Experience has shown the importance of appropriate legislation, public awareness as well as economic resources in ensuring accessibility to public spaces.

Over the past two decades, several countries have passed laws to make accessibility provisions in public buildings mandatory. The US has the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 while access to public facilities by persons with disabilities is guaranteed in the Constitution of Thailand. Countries such as Malaysia, Jordan and South Africa have all, under pressure from civil rights groups, amended their national and municipal building bye-laws to ensure accessibility. In the case of India, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) amended the building byelaws in August 2000 and, along with the Office of the Chief Commissioner or Persons with Disabilities, has issued the guidelines for building a barrier free environment.

But, like other countries, accessibility in India too continues to be seen as a constraint on the design process and many architects and builders are still resistant to it. ‘Minor’ problems such as incorrect angle of ramps, narrow width of sidewalks, poor signage underscore the importance of compliance in ensuring universal access.

Source: Business World

_________________
Vikas

AccessAbility

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