DUBAI: Dubai authorities are working with developers and people with disabilities to set up new norms to ensure that accessibility is not an afterthought, but built into the design of buildings and infrastructure.
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 National quoted Dr. Hussain Maseeh, an expert in the social services sector with the Community Development Authority as highlighting at the Day 1 of the Future Accessibility summit .
“The code in a draft form is being reviewed by different government authorities,” Maseeh reportedly said.
“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 percent, 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.
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, said the news portal.
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,” Daniela Bas, director for social policy and development at the United Nation’s department of economic and social affairs, was quoted as saying by The National. “An accessible future means inclusion and inclusion is power.”
