Overview

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About AccessAbility

AccessAbility is a cross-disability consultancy working for the inclusion of persons with disability that was established in 2006. It started as the first professional and the premier accessibility consultancy service in India with our motto “Access = Ability” that metamorphosed into a consultancy working toward inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities rather than merely accessibility. It was the introduction of the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD) in 2008, that made us introspect our work and made us see working towards the implementation of Article 19 of the CRPD (titled - living independently and participating in ones community) as our goal.

The implementation of the article requires the government to ensure that all persons with disabilities are able to live an autonomous life and participate in their communities. The crux of the article is about negating the isolation and segregation disabled people face and foster inclusion. Guided by the CRPD, it was, natural for us to broaden the scope of our work as accessibility, assistive devices and support services are considered as per-requisites for making this right real. It made us start researching and understanding these areas more closely especially in relation to persons with disabilities in rural communities who are the most neglected.

Some Milestones

Over the years we have worked with different stakeholders including the corporate companies, UN organisations, national and international disabled peoples organisations, the government, and with persons with disabilities both at the national level and at the international level. While our journey continues, there have been many satisfying moments few of which include:

Pioneered in initiation working for accessibility with the corporate sector to become more accessible for their employees with disabilities
Pioneered in initiation working for accessibility with the hospitality industry to improve hotel accessibility for both guests and employees with disabilities as a result now even one star hotels are required to have basic accessibility
Pioneering in incorporating the concept of accessibility beyond ramps and build environments in our work.
Played a critical role the drafting of the chapter on accessibility as it stands in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 with the support of Late Mr. Javed Abidi, NCPEDP
Contributed technical accessibility content to the National Building Code, 2015 that was incorporated in all sections of the document and to the annexure specific to accessibility requirements in collaboration with NCPEDP & DEOC.
Contributed technical accessibility content in the drafting of the “Harmonised Guidelines for Barrier Free Environment” as a member of the technical sub-Committee formed by the Ministry of Urban
Development
Responsible for getting accessibility incorporated in
the TERI green building rating system.
Facilitation Accessibility Trainings not only in India but also in the neighbouring Pakistan and in countries as far as Egypt and Fiji.
Actively advocating for disability inclusive disaster risk reduction to be included in the Sendai Framework for Disaster risk reduction at the negotiations in Geneva and the world conference at Sendai.
Working with the International Disability Alliance in the promotion of the CRPD in South Asia.
Working towards promoting accessibility for persons with disabilities in Rural India