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The pedestrian pathways continue to remain inaccessible in Mumbai

Dear Friends,

The article below from Hindustan Times is a reflection of how much we care about our social infrastructure to be inclusive. There is similar situation across nation including its capital- the New Delhi.

Click below to read from source- Hindustan Times

Meant to Help, they are now impediments

Pravin Shingwan, a construction worker who lives in Breach Candy, says he cannot let his nine-year-old daughter Rakhi walk alone to the store down the road because the pavement has been completely encroached upon by hawkers, forcing pedestrians onto the busy street.

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The Shigwans are not a wealthy family, so Rakhi walks to school every day, with the children of domestic help from the plush buildings nearby.

“There are fruit and vegetable shops on the footpath, and the little space left is taken by people buying things from them,“ says Rakhi. “Even when we walk to school, the older students have to hold our hands so that nobody gets hit by the traffic.“

For Pravin and his wife, the state of the pavements is an endless source of stress.

“It would really help to have a wide footpath that was safe for children to walk or run on, without the stress of what might happen to them every day,“ says Pravin. Regional programme development advisor at SightSavers, Ketan Kothari which promotes inclusion for the blind, lives in Mahim and finds it very difficult to navigate footpaths with his cane.

“Firstly, they are often too high, and if your cane misses the change in depth, you can fall and injure yourself quite terribly,“ he says. “It would help to have a slope at either end instead.
More importantly, though, there are all sorts of obstacles in your line of walking -protruding objects such as trees planted right in the middle, or ditches from missing paver blocks. The cane cannot always detect these, leaving blind people to risk bumps and injuries as they walk.“ The cane also cannot always tell Kothari when tiles have come loose, so he and other visually impaired people are prone to trip. “Dumpsters and hawkers are also a threat.“

While Kothari hasn’t been seriously injured by footpaths, he is always afraid that he will be. “The chances are high,“ he says. Even with a fairly advanced motorised wheelchair, computer hardware professional Mayank Rokadia, 48, cannot get around by himself in Mumbai.

“It’s frustrating, because a simple change in the design of the footpaths would enable people like me to be self-reliant, for the most part,“ he says.

“Wheelchairs and prams, are not built to climb up steps. I need someone to lift the wheelchair onto the pavement every time, which defeats the purpose of having a machine that can help me achieve mobility outdoors.“

Rokadia wishes the pavements had slight inclines. “At least the newer ones should have that feature,“ he says.

He also complains that manoeuvring himself on uneven ground, with ditches and missing paver blocks, is very difficult.

“The wheels get stuck in uneven areas where the paver tiles have come loose. There are also several roads with pavement on only one side of the road, so if I cross, I’m left maneouvering down the street and that is quite scary.“ HK Rao, a 76-year-old Borivli resident and consultant at the Indian Merchant’s Chamber, often needs to walk the 100 metres from his building to the bus stop to commute, but the short walk always leaves him with aching knees.

“The steps here are unnecessarily high,“ he says. “And since it’s not one continuous footpath, you have to keep climbing up and down, which not only slows down and tires someone of my age, but is very difficult on the knees.“

The footpath is uneven too, which is worrying because you have to watch every step so that you don’t trip and fall, says Rao.

In just 100 metres, the senior citizen also has to wend his way past garbage bins, hawkers and parked cars strewn across the middle of the pavement. “It takes a lot of effort to navigate these obstacles and sometimes it is just easier to walk on the main road,“ he says.
“Of course, I can’t move fast and I sometimes can’t hear properly, so it is very frightening being at the mercy of the traffic.“

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JNU continues to be disabled unfriendly

Hi,

Often to tackle the enforcement issues, the authorities start interfering with the inclusive features of the built environment. They forget that this tweaking in the design can make certain constitutes of the social fabric entirely disabled. An example of this is placement of bollards on the kerb ramps and slopes to stop misuse of the pedestrian pathways by motor bikers etc. This results in barriers for persons with disabilities and break the seamless chain of accessibility.

Those responsible for managing and maintaining such  public infrastructure must be cautious while planning any such intervention. On the contrary, it is advisable to invest in enforcement and initiate heavy penalties against violators. The Jawahar Lal Nehru University Campus seems to doing the same mistake (read the news item below)  and it should be corrected sooner than later as this is most likely to discourage the persons with disabilities from studying in the JNU.

Accessibility for disabled a major problem at JNU

At Jawaharlal Nehru University, it may be easy getting admission, but for disabled students accessibility is key issue.

Akshansh Gupta, 28 a PhD student is physically challenged since birth and cannot move around without assistance. He is also unable to push his own wheelchair. His attendant, Mahajan carries him around the campus, to and from his classes, as there is no ramp to reach first floor. Even going to the canteen for a cup of tea becomes a task since Mahajan has to carry him up and down the stairs.

Though there are ramps at many places in the varsity, each of them have pillars at both ends, making it impossible for wheelchairs to pass through. Wheelchairs have to be folded and carried from between these pillars while the person made to walk through.

“It is a lot of trouble for me. It is difficult to move from place to place,” rued Akshansh. Garima, studying at the Social Sciences department and using crutches to walk around the campus suggested an on-campus transport system as the solution. “If there could be some sort of vehicle to help disabled people reach their departments, it would be really helpful,” she said.

Vice Chancellor, JNU, S K Sopory said this was a problem that has to be dealt with at the earliest.

“I have surveyed the area along with staff from the engineering branch and it was decided that wherever these ramps have barriers, they will be removed.” he said. JNU authorities plan to make the buildings more disabled friendly in about two months time.

According to general secretary of the JNU disabled person’s association, Mohammad Tariq, inaccessibilty is a major problem in the renowned varsity.

“The text book section of the library, the periodical section, the canteen, Aravali International guest house, a community center at Saraswati Puram and a few more hostels are also inaccessible for physically challenged people. We are still looked upon like strangers” said Tariq.

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Four wheelchair users to tour country’s monuments

Sunita Sancheti, 40, has never ventured out of her house without being assisted by a family member to manoeuvre her wheelchair.

However, this September, she will cover approximately 16,000 km at a stretch by road without their assistance.

“If not for the world, I am hoping to at least go around the country in 80 days on my own,“ said Sancheti, who will travel to tourist spots across 28 states along with three other wheelchair users -Arvind Prabhoo, 42, Nishant Khade, 40, and Neenu Kewlani, 41.

The group, that calls itself the Adventurous Four, will undertake the Beyond BarriersIncredible India project to gauge how accessible the country is to wheelchair users. It plans to submit its observations and an access audit report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“Tourism for the disabled is nonexistent in India. Right from the lack of disabled-friendly urinals on the roads to the absence of supportive infrastructurevisiting architectural marvels in our country is an ordeal,“ added Sancheti. Under the guidance of the Vijay Merchant Rehabilitation Centre for the Disabled (VMRCD), they will visit two monuments in every state during their three-month trip, and will discuss the challenges with the states’ chief ministers and disability commissioners.

“Travelling such long distances at a stretch is going to be a big challenge,“ said Kewlani, who will also be travelling outside the city without her family for the first time. “Keeping in mind the health concerns, we will also be accompanied by our care-givers,“ she added.

For Prabhoo, who conceptualised the project, visiting the tourist spots has been a childhood dream.

“The enthusiasm is overpowering the nervousness. By putting ourselves on a spot, we are hoping to make a larger difference in the lives of the 10 % of the country’s population that is disabled,“ he said.

Published in : Hindustan Times.

 

 

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A successful 4th ICAT at Taipei, Taiwan

Dear Friends,

4th International Conference on Accessible Tourism was hosted jointly by Eden Social Welfare Foundation  & Accessible Tourism Committee, Asia Pacific Disability Forum (APDF) during  11-14 April 2011 at Taiwan Hospital Convention Centre, Taipei, Taiwan (http://www.thcc.net.tw ). More than 200 odd delegates from leading organisations /institutions and  world leaders of accessible tourism movement from across the globe, including Svayam, participated in the Conference. The Conference was inaugurated by the Hon’ble President of Taiwan  Ma Ying-jeou amidst  a cultural extravaganza. He spoke about the progress Taiwan has made in making its physical infrastructure & services accessible to every one and stressed that they still could do much more and invited suggestions from the experts who gathered at the Conference.

Ms. Abha Negi, Director-Svayam and Chair Organising Committee of TRANSED 2012 India extending invitation to President of Taiwan, His Excellency Ma Ying-jeou for active participation of  Ministry of Transport & Communication and Tourism, Govt. of Taiwan in the forthcoming 13th International Conference on Mobility and Transport for the Elderly & Disabled Persons in India during 17-21 Sep 2012.

A Gala Dinner was organised with theme “World Cultural Night,” wherein all participants were dressed up in their respective national costumes. Svayam Team/Transed 2012 Secretariat Team also participated in the Cultural Night & Gala Diner hosted by Eden Welfare Foundation – the host of 4th ICAT 2011.

Subsequently the Svayam Team consisting of Ms. Abha Negi, Mr. SC Vashishth & Ms. Kirandeep also met the Senior officials of Taiwanese Ministry of Transport & Communication who promised that TRANSED 2012 will have good representation from Taiwan government and NGOs.

Svayam was one of the sponsoring international organisations of ICAT 2011.

A stall was also put up promoting TRANSED 2012.

Here is the news coverage by China Post:

Taiwan can do much more to promote accessibility for disabled: President

 
April 13, 2011 11:12 pm TWN, CNA

TAIPEI–President Ma Ying-jeou on Tuesday praised the strides Taiwan has made in developing a barrier-free environment to promote accessible tourism but acknowledged that more needs to be done.

Speaking at the 4th International Conference on Accessible Tourism in Taipei, Ma said Taiwan was working to create an environment where the physically challenged, senior citizens, and children could enjoy an accessible vacation.

“Although we have a complete law to protect the rights of the disabled, there is still room for improvement in its execution,” he said at the opening of the two-day conference called “Accessible Living Drives National Development.”

There are 1.08 million people in Taiwan with either physical or mental disabilities and 2.48 million senior citizens, all of whom require an accessible living environment, encompassing tourism, assistive devices, transportation, and housing, the president said.

Ma cited steps taken in Taipei City as examples of progress made in providing a more accessible environment, including promoting barrier-free facilities such as accessible ramps and washrooms and flattening 121,100 square meters of walkways covered by building overhangs along Taipei streets.

One of the conference’s 200 participants said that traveling to other areas of Taiwan, however, remained difficult for those with disabilities.

“The gap between platforms and public transport vehicles, like trains and buses, should be redesigned,” said Taipei City resident and wheelchair user Hanmer Fu, who relies on the train to travel with his wife to suburban areas for weekend getaways.

He also suggested that the government develop a taxi network catering specifically to the physically challenged.

“We are often caught in a difficult situation after leaving the train station because no taxi drivers are willing to take us deeper into cities,” he said.

The Taipei City Government, one of the first to launch a dedicated taxi service for disabled persons, now has 168 taxi vans available to those who apply to use it.

Though the rate is only one-third the normal taxi price, it has to be booked days in advance, which is still inconvenient for those who need help getting around.

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications set up a barrier-free transportation task force in January that aimed to provide more low-floor city buses by the end of the year and make 40 more train stations around the country more accessible.

To plan accessible travel, the Eden Welfare Foundation, which organized the conference, has published a booklet that lists 38 tourist attractions, 16 restaurants, 16 accommodations, 12 tour itineraries, and 15 museums considered to be accessible.

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Project Arrow should include mandatory component of Access during renovation of Post Offices

727 more post offices to be upgraded

Dear Friends,

Department of Post is undertaking this exercise of renovating major post office as part of its Project Arrow and we were extremely happy that this renovation will provide opportunity to the the Deportment of Post, Govt. of India to make their Post offices being upgraded under this project accessible to diversity of users including those with reduced mobility and those with disabilities.

However, our recent experience indicates otherwise. A survey of the Post Office at Parliament Street in the heart of Delhi recently upgraded under project Arrow brings out that perhaps the component of access has not been given the priority that it deserved in light of legal mandate of Accessibility in Public Infrastructure. We are taking up this issue with the Department, so that it is addressed now before it is too late.

However, it would be a good economic sense to adhere to the Guidelines on Accessible and Barrier Free Infrastructure at the time of undertaking renovation projects of this magnitude  so that the need of retrofitting at a future date is nipped in the bud and financial resources are used judiciously.

regards

Svayam Team

Click here to read from source

India Post is giving a corporate look to 727 more post offices as part of its “Project Arrow  

New Delhi: After upgrading 1,000 post offices across the country, India Post is giving a corporate look to 727 more with better services under one roof as part of its “Project Arrow”, Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot says.

“The look and feel of these post offices will be different and these offices will be fully computerised with additional features like electronic funds transfer, instant money order and computerised banking services,” Pilot said.

“We picked some 1,000 post offices in 500 districts over the past year and spent Rs 160-odd crore. The look and feel, the aesthetics, the uniform have all changed. They are like a one-stop shop for people looking at a host of services,” he said.

“Once the atmosphere is more welcoming, footfalls will increase. And once the footfalls increase, more revenue will come in. And once more revenue comes in, it motivates our employees,” he added, reports IANS.

“We have started getting results as well. In the last quarter of 2009, these 1,000 post offices saw a 23-per cent jump in revenue,” the Minister said.

The government has around 150,000 post offices across the country and more than 450,000 people working out of them. The idea is to make these offices find ways to counter the loss of revenues on account of telecom, Internet and courier businesses.

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Ahmedabad BRT wins Sustainable Transport Award at Washington

Taking learnings from Delhi BRT, Gujarat has successuly implemented its BRT which has got accolades from Transport Research Bureau, Washington and recently awarded Sustainable Transport Award.

Here is the coverage:

This report is also available at: http://uttipec.nic.in/writereaddata/mainlinkFile/File206.doc

In 3 months, Ahmedabad BRT a winner

Source: The Times of India dated 21.01.2010
              
Ironed Out Delhi Flaws To Notch Up Ridership Of 35,000, Wins International Acclaim
Megha Suri Singh | TNN

New Delhi: Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) are dreaded words in the capital but the urban transportation concept has become immensely popular in Ahmedabad since the pilot corridor is nothing like its Delhi counterpart. In fact, they have learnt from Delhi’s mistakes to make it a successful venture. 
    The three-month-old corridor introduced all that Delhi lacked — it was started with Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled buses, a passenger information system (PIS) and closed bus shelters with smart-card based ticketing at the bus-stops and not inside buses. The first corridor was planned in ‘‘lowdensity areas’’ and operated free for people for the first two months.

Ahmedabad BRT

    When Delhi’s tryst with BRT began almost two years ago, with trial runs on the pilot 5.8-km stretch between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand, the irritants were congestion in the car lane which was squeezed to just two lanes, signal cycles going for a toss with long waiting time at intersections, bus shelters located at crossings adding to the chaos and a long waiting time for buses. In Ahmedabad, the BRT corridor stretches over 16.5 km in an area which, unlike congested south Delhi, is still being developed by the government.
    “There are large tracts of open space along the corridor and offices are being developed along them. This is a transit-oriented model of development where transportation has come first and development later,’’ said an official. The average traffic counts at intersections are just 3000-4000 PCUs hourly as against Delhi BRT where some intersections have counts as high as 20,000-30,000 PCUs per hour. It is a closed BRT system. So, the buses don’t go out and other buses are not allowed in. The buses are fitted with devices which signals can read and give them free passage. The Intelligent Traffic Signals (ITS) system planned for the Delhi corridor is yet to come up.
    The bus-stops are located 200 metres before the intersections and have platform screen doors operated by sensors to prevent people from getting hit by buses passing by. The doors open when a bus arrives and all buses, standard floor ones, stop in perfect alignment with the bus shelters. Delhi spent much more on buying low-floor buses to provide stepless entry to people, but even two years later, drivers seldom stop the bus in alignment with the platform.
    ‘‘We started with a ridership of 17,000 people daily in October last year. This has grown to 35,000 in three months,’’ said Prof Shivanand Swamy of CEPT University, Ahmedabad, which conceptualised the BRT model.
    It recently got the Sustainable Transport Award by Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) in Washington.

SERVING ITS PURPOSE The BRT corridor stretches over 16.5 km in Ahmedabad and has Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled buses, a passenger information system (PIS) and closed bus shelters with smart-card based ticketing at bus-stops and not inside buses. It’s also located in an area that is not densely populated.

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Public Transportation is the key to Urban Mess

Now every body agrees that Public Transportation is the key to urban chaos. However, it must go in a planned way where citizens are prepared well in advance. Shift to dedicated corridors in a new thing to many developing economies and hence public education should be an important step before implementing such policies. Also local needs and perception needs to be addressed.

Gujarat successfully implemented its BRT project ironing out the shortcomings that Delhi BRT faced and even got an international Award “Sustainable Transport Award” at TRB meeting during January 2010 at Washington.

Now even Delhi Government seems to have learnt from its BRT fiasco. Delhi transport commissioner RK Verma said BRT was a concept that Delhi government had turned down at first. ‘‘If we want BRT to become successful, we need to adapt it to the needs of people in the area where it is being implemented.’’

With Bangalore moving to dedicated corridors, here are some comments from Senior transport engineer for sustainable transport from the USA, Dario Hidalgo.

‘Bus Rapid Transit needs infrastructure to work’

 To read from source click here

BANGALORE: Senior transport engineer for sustainable transport from the USA, Dario Hidalgo, on Friday pointed out that building roads, flyovers, underpasses and widening of roads is not enough to get rid of traffic congestion in urban areas.

 “Besides BRT (Bus Rapid Transit), infrastructure and accessibility should be created for non-motorised transport for pedestrians and cyclists,” he said.

 He said that the BRT system in Asia is not yet fully understood by stakeholders, at a day-long national workshop on BRT held by the Directorate of Urban Land Transport. He added that Delhi’s problems resulted in a negative impact on BRT all over India as the Delhi bus corridor had several problems in its first weeks.

Hidalgo said BRT is a high quality public transport system, oriented to users and offering fast, comfortable and low-cost urban mobility. He stressed the importance of BRT for Bangalore. “Following economic development, numbers of vehicles are increasing faster than population,” he said.

The Comprehensive Transport and Traffic Plan for Bangalore proposes that BRT can be done for 291.5 km at a cost of Rs 3,498 crore in two phases in 14 corridors. The proposal is to develop BRT on the Outer Ring Road as a pilot project from Hebbal to Central Silk Board junction.

The bus system would have a dedicated corridor and operate new technology buses designed for urban environment.

Hidalgo said that BRT does not need wide roads to be incorporated in urban areas. “BRT will be a success provided it has dedicated bus lanes and elevated tracks besides integrating the feeder services with the system,” he added.

 Transport Secretary S Shankarlinge Gowda said that BRT can be incorporated in Bangalore if certain corridors are facilitated for it.

“Without the involvement of civic bodies, BRT cannot be implemented.

 The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) should be proactive and take up the project,” he added.

Gowda said that BRT should also be planned for developing cities like Mysore and Hubli-Dharwad. “BDA should take up developing of BRT for 30 km in the first phase,” he added. 

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Winter Olympic Games 2010, a catalyst in making Vancouver an accessible city

Dear Friends,

The 2010 Olympic Winter Games scheduled to be held in Vancouver are proving to be a catalyst for change. Making the city and sports facilities accessible to people with disabilities.

“We are using the Games as a driver to get people thinking about how to make (Vancouver) one of the most accessible places in the world.” says Bruce Dewar, CEO of a Vancouver not-for-profit society called 2010 Legacies Now.

Click here to read from source

Here is the detailed news

Vancouver’s hosting of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games is benefitting one very deserving group of travellers: Those with disabilities.

“The Games are a catalyst for change of the very best kind,” says Bruce Dewar, CEO of a Vancouver not-for-profit society called 2010 Legacies Now. “We are using the Games as a driver to get people thinking about how to make (Vancouver) one of the most accessible places in the world.”

With an estimated one in eight people worldwide living with a disability, and $13 billion being spent annually in North America by travellers with disabilities, Vancouver has tagged the group as one of the fastest growing market opportunities in the world.

The city’s plan to make itself more accessible began as far back as 2006 when then Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan participated in the closing ceremonies of Torino’s Olympic Winter Games. The image of Sullivan, a person with quadriplegia, spinning in his wheelchair with the Olympic flag fluttering overhead symbolized Vancouver’s commitment to adapting itself for disabled travellers.

Vancouver started by developing a city-wide program that helps businesses fulfill criteria in accessibility assessment. The goal of participating businesses (such as attractions and restaurants) is to earn the right to display icons that address their wheelchair accessibility, visual accessibility, and hearing accessibility. The program also helps provide clear and consistent information to travellers with disabilities.

Tourism Vancouver got into the game next by adapting its website. Visitors searching for accommodation on TourismVancouver.com can now search specifically for accessible accommodation listings. And a number of attractions, such as Vancouver Aquarium and the Museum of Vancouver, feature their accessibility icons and information on their Tourism Vancouver listing.

With the hosting of the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games on the horizon, Vancouver International Airport (YVR) also threw its hat into the rings. YVR is claiming it now exceeds national standards for people with hearing, visual or mobility impairments. Features include ticket and service counters with amplified handsets, low-mounted flight information monitors, visual paging monitors and public address systems displayed in written form, information kiosks with closed-captioned decoders, as well as accessible washrooms.

YVR’s airport vehicle rental agencies are now equipped to provide cars with hand-controls, while the YVR Airporter (yvrairporter.com) shuttle bus service can arrange transportation to Vancouver’s major hotels. Accessible cabs are also available at the airport.

Vancouver’s swift new Canada Line — the train that transports travellers from the airport to various points throughout the city — has designed its stations to be wheelchair-accessible, and every Canada Line train can accommodate four wheelchairs.

Finally, one especially heart-warming aspect of this Olympic legacy is the building of three accessible playgrounds to enable all children, including children with disabilities, to play side-by-side. The 2010 Legacies Now group partnered with Shane’s Inspiration, a not-for-profit organization, to build accessible playgrounds in Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler.

Vancouver’s playground will be located at Kitsilano Beach Park. Richmond’s along the Middle Arm Waterfront Greenway, close to the Olympic Oval. And the Whistler playground, already open, is next to Celebration Plaza, where the Whistler-won Olympic medals are being awarded.

“The part of this project that excites me the most is how tourism has embraced it,” says 2010 Legacies Now’s Dewar. “The Games are the tipping point and things will carry on from here.”