Introduction
In the 21st century, even with the advent of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), the existing built environment still fails the neighborhood accessibility needs of people with disability. The built environment need to be more accessible and developed for the disabled persons, it will make the environment better and the disabled persons will be benefited. In India the Initiative has been taken by the Government of India under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) they launched Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) as a nation-wide Campaign for achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). This campaign will undertake measures to eliminate barriers from indoor and outdoor and will make development in the infrastructure of the Schools for the disabled children and provide medical facilities to the disabled persons. These would include developing all public spaces such as roads, footpaths, parks and gardens so that not only disabled but also normal people could live a better life.
Objectives to Built Environment Accessibility
Enhancing the proportion of accessible government & private buildings
Making the government and private important buildings accessible, where persons with disabilities have no barrier in entering it and using all the facilities therein. This covers the built environment – services, steps and ramps, corridors, entry gates, emergency exits, parking – as well as indoor and outdoor facilities including lighting, signages, alarm systems and toilets. Identifying accessible buildings requires annual accessibility audits that determine if a building meets agreed upon standards. Once a building is deemed fully accessible, an annual audit is not necessary, but should be required for any proposed changes to the structure or systems contained therein.
Transportation System Accessibility.
Transportation is a vital part for a person to live independently, mostly the public with disability will rely on a better transport facility to move from one place to another.
- Enhancing proportion of accessible airports. An airport is accessible, if a person with a disability has no barrier in entering it, using all the facilities, and boarding and disembarking from airplanes. Conducting an audit for converting the domestic and international airports and making them accessible and built in the environment.
- Enhancing the proportion of accessible railway stations.
- Enhancing the proportion of accessible Public Transport
Ensuring that 25% of Government owned public transport carriers in the country are converted into fully accessible carriers.
Information and Communication Eco-System Accessibility
A person if accessible to information then there is an immense amount of opportunities available. Information is used by many people to make decisions in their life. By making Information accessible to the Disabled persons then it would be convenient for them to read price tags, to physically enter a hall, to participate in an event, to read a pamphlet with healthcare information, to understand a train timetable, or to view webpages. No longer should societal barriers of infrastructure, and inaccessible formats stand in the way of obtaining and utilizing information in daily life. The targets set under relate to websites, the audio-visual media and sign language interpreter.
- Enhancing proportion of accessible and usable public documents and websites that meet internationally recognized accessibility standards.
- Enhancing and developing more sign language interpreters.
- Enhancing the proportion of daily captioning and sign-language interpretation of public television news programmes
The vision of India is to create a barrier free environment for the persons with disability for their dignified living. The Accessible India Campaign drew inspiration from the United Nations Convention on Rights for Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD; 2007) to which India is a signatory.
In America they have the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), “the term ‘disability’ means an individual has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of his/her major life activities or an individual is regarded as having such an impairment.” Caused by injury, disease or medical condition, or neurological, chemical, or developmental factors, severe disabilities affect about 12% of the U.S. population.