I start with examples…. I suffer from cerebral palsy and use voice recognition when I have trouble with my hands, easing my work to a large extent. Ramps and handrails on educational campuses helps everyone, students and staff alike, be they wheelchair users or not. In short, Accessibility is not just for people with disabilities, it is for every one of us. We are not using Universal Design, for Accessibility to leverage the services or products that we provide. That is one skill we all need to acquire. Knowing that small tweaks help, our infrastructure across the country can be made accessible via Audits and assessments of the built environment, be it a home, or an office or a factory setting.
The UN Standard Rules (Annexure 5: References) where the Built Infrastructure is impacted directly
Rule # Description
5 Accessibility
6 Education
7 Employment
11 Recreation and sports
19 Personnel training
There are 22 rules, out of which 5 are impacted directly by the inappropriate built infrastructure.
Built Infrastructure and Barriers for PwDs
Of course, the built environment audit will throw up a few structural changes but that will be an added asset. The accessible built environment can be utilized further and be a source of revenue generation if it is used effectively. The example that I can quote here is an educational institution which has made its built infrastructure accessible. Once the school is out, the same premises can be utilized for a vocational center for training persons with disabilities. Of course, this service is at a cost so that additional revenue is generated.
As a rule, PwDs are not employed at the white-collar levels. Maybe because most of them do not get educated due to inaccessible infrastructure. It becomes a vicious circle. Education, or lack thereof for a PwD, then becomes a cause for less or no employment, and hence leading to dependence on others to feed themselves.
Barriers to economic growth
Per the last census we had 2.68 crores of PwDs, out of which almost 80% are illiterate due to not having accessibility to schools or right curriculum / content or both. Today that number is closer to 3 crores. Accessibility, and especially the built infrastructure accessibility, puts the 10 to 15% of PwDs in the forefront to learn and earn, and contribute to the nation positively. As of now, we are failing to tap this invisible but potentially productive capital base.