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Towards a totally accessible society

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI DEC. 28. The Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) has decided to bring out a manual on barrier-free environment detailing ways of creating a totally accessible society. The manual will be used for training professionals through a short a three to five day training programme which it plans to launch soon.

"The aim will be to highlight the issue of access to realise the full potential of persons with disability and their integration into the mainstream society," says the RCI Chairman, Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia.

The manual is a result of the workshops that the RCI has been conducting to train and sensitise its trainers across the country on barrier- free environment. The participants who underwent these workshops include representatives from RCI affiliated organizations, District Rehabilitation Centres, non-government and self help organisations including special educators, CBR workers, paramedics, mobility instructors, lawyers and activist working in the field of disability.

The workshops were jointly organised by RCI and Samrthya, an NGO based in Delhi. "We feel that access is one of the most important requirements of a person with disability. The manual will detail the concept of barrier free environment and talk about ways to create such an environment for people with every kind of disability, be it visual impairment, locomotor handicap and hearing impairment," says Mr. Ahluwalia.

The manual will detail issues such as how to use a wheel chair, white cane, crutches and low vision glasses; how to assist a wheel chair user and ways to escort a blind person, etc. Both internal and external environment with roads, approach, pathways, parking, reception, telephone, toilets, drinking water facility, lifts, stairs and ramps will also be covered in the manual. It will also talk about the other design considerations -- external and internal environment covering: parking; entrances to buildings; doors and thresholds; ramps; staircases and steps; lifts; circulation and space within buildings; toilets; drinking water facility; floor finishes; placement of guiding and warning blocks; information boards and signage and colour contrast.

Sanjeev Sachdeva, co-founder of Samarthya, says, "For the disabled education and employment depend on access. Employment is not of any use to the disabled unless they have access to places of employment and public places. Access means everything."

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