Dr. Anjlee Agarwal
Accessibility is the first requirement in the creation of a disability-inclusive world. Without ensuring accessibility, all other rights guaranteed to persons with disabilities become meaningless. Making the world disability-inclusive requires: (1) which rectifies the errors of the past and (2) which plans for the future. To ensure that the errors of the past are not repeated and to rectify the errors of the past, renovating and rebuilding the erstwhile inaccessible built environment and making it accessible is the need of the hour. Full inclusion and equal participation of persons with disabilities is absolutely necessary by means of accessibility provided in the built, transportation, and information & communication ecosystems. Obstacles exist not only for those who have disabilities from birth or early in life, but also for the elderly, who might experience reduced hearing, vision, mobility or manual dexterity; and that these difficulties may call for accessible infrastructure.Objective: For achieving universal accessibility for all citizens including the elderly and persons with disabilities, Accessible India Campaign, a nationwide flagship campaign of Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India was launched on 3rd December, 2015. The campaign aims to address the inaccessibility faced by 15% of India’s population who have some form of disability. It focuses on three verticals viz. accessibility in the Built Environment, Transport eco-system and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). It mandates implementation of universal accessibility in the country with the mission to make “Accessible India: Empowered India”. Action: In 2016, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities constituted a Steering Committee with experts with disabilities and people working on accessibility and developed a Strategy Paper with targets and timelines for accessibility implementation across all verticals in a phased manner. A portal and APP was also developed to raise awareness and provide information of sites and buildings that are not accessible for further action by the Department. The campaign is synergized with the Chapter VI, Accessibility and section 15, Rules for Accessibility of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. Accessibility audits, development of guidelines, codes and undertaking capacity building training workshops are some of the activities undertaken to meet the aim of the campaign. Celebrating: 9 years after the launch of the campaign on the 3rd Dec. 2024, it is strongly felt that although accessibility is mandatory as per the law and campaign has raised awareness and changed the attitude of stakeholders and service providers. However, many authorities have yet to implement and reinforce accessible environments in all spheres of life. For this, all of us must “adopt, implement, monitor and enforce national accessibility standards and principles of Universal Design” to ensure Universal Accessibility, which benefits all. Future: Hence, the Accessible India Campaign will further pave the way for promotion and implementation of Universal Accessibility to enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life. This will also ensure their equal access on an equal basis with others for all facilities and services open / provided to the public both in urban and rural areas.
Partnerships: The private and public sectors all have a role to play in providing accessible infrastructure to address obstacles to inclusion and empowerment. We call upon businesses and corporate institutions, Central and State Government, persons with disabilities, Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and all others to join hands to make our public and private buildings, transport infrastructure and digital world accessible at the earliest. This will warrant ‘leave no one behind’ and ‘make the right real’!!
(The Author is National Awardee, 2003, Universal Accessibility and Sustainable Mobility Specialist, Executive Director, Samarthyam)