Disability community calls for urgent action on accessibility

Acknowledging the government’s moves towards long-term solutions, Senator Janeil Odle said Barbados must begin taking practical steps now to ensure disabled persons’ rights to accessibility are respected. The attorney-at-law and national advocate for people with disabilities was speaking as concerns were raised about the difficulties members of the disabled community and people with limited mobility are experiencing in getting into some courts – including some of the nation’s busiest magistrates’ and traffic courts. She told Barbados TODAY that the disability community had been calling for years for building codes to be enforced, particularly to ensure that people constructing or refurbishing public buildings make them accessible. “The crazy part is that we in Barbados have the building codes. We had it for a while now, but it’s not enforced,” Odle said. She said the recently enacted Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act provides an opportunity to address the problem, with public buildings given three years to become accessible. Describing accessibility as a “progressive right” and acknowledging that the necessary changes could not happen overnight, the senator said action could not be delayed indefinitely. “We can’t just decide not to do anything at all,” she said. Odle said accessibility improvements should begin with buildings that persons with disabilities may have to rely on, including health-care facilities and the courts. “I am very hopeful that sometime soon, we can see these rights being realized, especially in buildings that we have to depend on every day, like health-care buildings, the courts, and different places that we have to rely on. I want to see these spaces done first actually as it relates to making buildings accessible.” She also welcomed an accessibility audit being undertaken by the Ministry of People Empowerment to assess public buildings in its bid to determine what needs to be done, calling it “a good step in the right direction”. But she said accessibility must not be limited to the physical environment but also “access to transportation, access to communication and information.”  “So even if we get it right tomorrow and have accessible roads and have accessible buildings, if we don’t have accessible transportation and accessible communication and information, we are still excluded.” Odle said many of the solutions needed to improve accessibility already exist, pointing to assistive technology that can help visually impaired people access documents and applications that can convert speech into sign language. But, she said: “The sad reality is that there are solutions to a lot of accessibility issues, but it’s extremely costly to have accessible devices and assisted devices,” she said. Odle also called for greater awareness of the relatively simple measures that could make public spaces and information more inclusive. “For persons who are blind, it may be something as simple as putting information in a digital document that I can read on my computer or my phone using a voiceover program and text-to-speech program.” “It’s not that difficult to include people; it’s just more education is needed and awareness is needed so persons can understand what is needed to be done to include the community.” Odle said authorities should not wait for  permanent solutions before acting. “Whether it is a temporary ramp today, and tomorrow we’ll work more on it, and a few weeks down the line have an engineer or somebody else in place to make the permanent ramp, we need to take steps to ensure that the right of accessibility is respected.” (JB) The post Disability community calls for urgent action on accessibility appeared first on Barbados Today.