ABU DHABI // Residents and disability rights advocates are welcoming the construction of three lifts at pedestrian bridges in the Tourist Club area. People are already using the completed lift at the bridge in front of Le Meridien hotel, while construction workers are installing lifts on the bridge in front of Abu Dhabi Mall and on 10th Street between Hamdan Street and Meena Road. "Of course I am happy," said R Baghdadi, 75, after walking with a cane across the bridge in front of Le Meridien.
Thomas Pape, the senior technical adviser on special needs to the Zayed Higher Organisation for Humanitarian Care, also welcomed the lifts. "It's a great initiative," he said, "and we are really thankful that they include the accessibility for special-needs people." Mr Pape said, however, that while the lift in front of Le Meridien was easily accessible, the presence of a kerbstone with too steep a ramp would make it difficult to access.
"I would say generally, from an international standards point of view, it is good," he said. "But it needs some improvement." He is looking forward to a new international building code to be adopted by the Department of Municipal Affairs this year - a code that will require that all new buildings be accessible to people with disabilities. The municipality said that the second lift on 10th Street would be ready by the end of the month, and the one at Abu Dhabi Mall next month.
Even though a sign at the finished lift indicated it was limited to "the physically handicapped, visually impaired and for senior citizens only", able-bodied people were using it. It remains to be seen whether the lifts will significantly reduce jaywalking. @Email:mchung@thenational.ae
