User:Ali Alahmary/sandbox

People with Disabilities and City Planning Physical disability is a condition wherein a person’s activities and movements are somewhat hindered and limited because of impairment. Persons with disabilities usually have limited participation compared with others living in the same community. Sometimes, they are denied equal opportunities in school, in work and in the community they belong to. To address this problem, international organization like United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This was ratified by 168 countries all over the world. The primary reason for this, is to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities and make sure that their needs are being met. For physically-abled persons, difficulty in moving around is never a problem and sometimes, this thing is never thought about. But, in the case of persons with physical disabilities, moving around is a problem to most of them. In a busy community like the urban areas where people move around going to different places, persons with physical disabilities sometimes fear for their safety. Some public places, buildings and spaces do not cater to the needs of these special people. These places are not designed to attend to such needs. In the case of a person in a wheelchair, that person’s movement is limited especially if there are narrow passages, stairs, curbs, and doorsteps which serve as obstruction in order for them to move around. Another case is that of a visually-impaired man. Although signs are available, these signs are not helpful at all if these signs are not located in expected places and can’t be read through touch. These are only some of the problems encountered by these kind of people simply because physically, designs were made without considering the needs of persons with physical difficulties.

A city should provide equal opportunities for all, people with disabilities included. It is projected that by year 2050, an increase of 66 per cent of the population of the world will be living in the urban areas (2014 Revision, 2014). It is expected that 15 per cent of 6.25 billion total population are persons with disabilities. Today, urban planning is faced with a challenge to design facilities and services which are also beneficial to persons with disability in terms of accessibility and sustainability. Physical access means one can freely go to places of work, play, study, and services among others. It also means easy access to elevators, restrooms, parking spaces, ramps without fear of danger due to physical disability. United Nations is committed to pursue its promise to include persons with disabilities in urban advancement worldwide. It has created internal policies to promote building of facilities and services that can be accessed by everyone. Cities are required to build buildings and spaces that do not set movement limitation for people with physical disabilities. This program is currently being implemented in many countries all over the world.

Singapore is one city state that underwent urban development in a short period of time. During the early stages of this development, accessibility was not a concern to the builders until this issue was finally brought up in the 1980s. This resulted to a formulated legislation providing accessibility in buildings that are barrier-free under the Building Control Regulations, 1989, (Ito, Akiko et. al.). Since then, planning was done in support to building a more user-friendly environment. However, there are still challenges in doing this program. Some building owners does not support this endeavor despite the offer of Accessibility Fund from the government.

The City of Hongkong with its 18 districts complied with accessibility program and underwent renovations from 2011 to 2017. In order to do this, the government formed a task force to determine and identify government and housing premises that needed improvement to be a barrier-free environment, (Ito, Akiko et. al.). Fortunately, the people responsible responded immediately and removed the barriers for easy access to people with disabilities and changes were achieved. However, the government of Hongkong still recommends to hire and train Access Coordinators and Access Officers to further improve this program. In 2010, an action plan was formulated with the aim to make Kuala Lumpur as Accessible City. The plan is set towards three stages of construction namely design, construction and post construction. This is further strengthened by the government’s issuance of Development Order (D.O.) requiring concerned persons to sign an undertaking to construct and rebuild as necessary. Implementation was further enhanced by monitoring, enforcing and training for raising awareness. The result was a success with the construction of public housing units, pedestrian networks and other premises and spaces that are accessible to persons with disability. The government of Malaysia is in the process of planning a barrier-free city master plan for Kuala Lumpur. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the focus of the program is towards children and youth with disabilities. The aim of the program, which is still on-going is to build accessible housing for children and youth with disabilities. Houses were built according to accessibility standards to accommodate children with physical disabilities. The project gave these children opportunity to go to school without any mobility problem. Other places like Gauteng and Western Cape Provinces in South Africa, Solo in Indonesia, Mexico City, San Francisco, U.S.A. among others are adhering to the United Nation’s program to build an accessible community for people with physical disabilities. Conclusion People with physical disabilities can also contribute to the community provided they will also have access to places and services as any other individual. This way they will be independent, earning a degree and eventually landing a decent job and have their own space in the urban community. Program such as this can only be done if everyone in the community are aware and understand the importance of accessibility for persons with disabilities. Collaboration among the public, private section and people is the key to improved accessibility in a community.