Disability is not Inability

::Inclusion in buildings

Accessibility and mobility.

21. Persons with disabilities are entitled to a barrier-free and disability-friendly environment to enable them to have access to buildings, roads and other social amenities, and assistive devices and other equipment to promote their mobility.

Accessibility in buildings.

The ACT when refering to accesibility does not expressly determine in areas where accessiblity is not physical in nature. the deaf do not have access to health facilites if they do not have an interpreter. how is this accomodated in this ACt? this Accessibility is defined only in terms of physical access. Physical means the structural aspects of the building that may hinder a physically challenged person to reach the service provider. The answer is building ramps and lifts. What about communication accesibility?

Assistive devises are only defined that promote mobility. the act does not include assistive devises that promote communication barriers. this is essential for the deaf and the blind. yet there are many computer-based facilites that are cheaper to implement than even physical adjustments of building. many hospitals need to build ramps and assistive devices and create systems through which disabled people can have access to their services.

According to the ACT the definition of Assistive devises includes:

“Assistive devices and services” means implements, tools and specialized services (including the services of qualified interpreters for the deaf and qualified teachers for the blind) provided to persons with disabilities to assist them in education, employment or other activities;

is it illegal therefore to have a hospital that does not have a sign language interpreter to assist a deaf person living with AIDS to access ART services or save life in a malaria attack?

Mobility: this is a necessary issue when it comes to the many Hospital or administration buildings in the rural areas. Most do not have lifts nor do they have rumps. Many may take long to adjust and a council adjustment against governemnt building and services is not even allowed by the ACT. This means the large population of disabled community living in the rtural areas may have to wait for vary many years for the access to be effective.

Category: the PWD ACT

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