DUBAI // Guidelines are being drawn up by authorities working with developers and people with disabilities to ensure that accessibility is not an afterthought, but built into the design of buildings and infrastructure.
Policy makers, government officials and advocacy groups heard on Monday – Day 1 of the Future Accessibility summit – that old areas and buildings would need to be retrofitted to be disabled friendly by 2020 and all new projects must comply with the regulations.
“The code in a draft form is being reviewed by different government authorities,” said Dr Hussain Maseeh, an expert in the social services sector with the Community Development Authority.
“Once the new code is approved and becomes law, every developer and every organisation that builds something will have to abide by these codes. So any new building from the initial start of the idea and the design process has to abide by the new code and any existing building or mobility project will have to be retrofitted or changed on a time frame from now until 2020.
“That may sound a little bit challenging, but that is our goal. Even if we don’t achieve it 100 per cent, we can be very close.”
The aim of the Dubai Universal Accessibility Strategy and Action Plans 2020 Project and government authorities such as the CDA, Dubai Municipality, Roads and Transport Authority is to ensure people with disabilities and the elderly can commute across the city independently.
“They [developers] need to change their mentality about accessibility. It’s not something to add; no, it’s something integral to any design. Unfortunately for a lot of builders and developers, accessibility comes as an afterthought; OK we have constructed the building, let’s see if we can make it accessible or not. We don’t want that kind of mentality.
“We want it to be accessible to everybody from the initial thought of the building that is universally designed so everybody can access it and there is no difficulty to seek facilities.”
Experts said touch screens at banks and ticket kiosks at airports should be designed keeping in mind people with visual impairments, while restaurant seating should factor in people in wheelchairs.
Practical examples were cited of the difficulty accessing towers where destination-control lifts are slotted to take people directly from the lobby to the required floor.
“Touch screens at the airport, destination elevators with no buttons on the inside, all add a layer of complexity,” said David Capozzi, executive director of the US federal access board that writes and updates standards.
“This poses lots of challenges because you need to know which elevator to go to. Restaurants that use high-top tables can also be a real problem.”
Access and fittings should be tested by people with disabilities and basic recommendations such as adequate slopes for ramps so people on wheelchairs can manoeuvre independently without a helper were also highlighted.
“There is a difference between accessibility and a place that is usable. To have equal access does not mean it is usable,” said Daniela Bas, director for social policy and development at the United Nation’s department of economic and social affairs. “An accessible future means inclusion and inclusion is power.”
Dubai has an opportunity to get it right because it is at the start of formulating an accessibility policy.
Ms Bas’s advice was: “Since you have the possibility to do something almost brand new, do it well, do it properly.”
rtalwar@thenational.ae
