People with disabilities join us on a special journey as we look at initiatives that are Enabling India.
The steps are making travel possible for more people and at the same
time changing the framework, moving beyond disability to focus on
accessibility.
An enabling environment benefits nearly 46 per cent of the population,
which includes senior citizens, people with disabilities and children.
32-year-old Satish Navle, who is visually impaired, is an adventurous
traveler. Based in Pune, he is currently on his fourth visit to Delhi.
In the last 15 years, the radio producer has undertaken 55 solo journeys
to Kashmir, Kanyakumari, Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh among others.
A radio producer and blind education researcher, Navle said, " When I
went to Jallianwala Bagh, I saw those bullet marks on the walls and
understood what people went through when General Dyer was firing at
them. Nothing can be more exciting than visiting the place and
experiencing the environment. Take the case of cricket. One can watch
cricket on TV, but why do nearly 60,000 people go to stadiums and watch
cricket live. We cannot get this feeling in books."
There are over a billion people with disabilities worldwide. According
to Lonely Planet, the world's largest travel guide publisher, 50% of
people with disabilities would travel more if suitable facilities were
available to them wherever they travelled.
"The thing about tourism and travel is that it's a great way for the
family to be together. You have a family member with a disability and
persons without and it's very difficult. I have lots of friends with
disabilities who can afford it, prefer travelling abroad, because they
find it so accessible. I went to the museums in Chicago and other places
and I saw so many people using wheelchairs, many children with
intellectual disabilities everywhere. And I just thought, there are
there so many people with disabilities in United States. And it was only
after that I started working with disabilities and realised that there
are probably more people with problems of disabilities in India," says
Amba Salelkar of Disability Rights.
A disability can happen to anyone at any time. Sminu Jindal, Managing
Director of Jindal SAW, became a wheelchair user after a car accident at
the age of 11. A frequent international traveler, she is a champion for
the cause of accessibility. Svayam, an NGO founded by her, has worked
as consultants with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), to make
world heritage sites in Agra and Delhi barrier free.
After eight years, she returns with us to Agra to take stock of the
achievements at the historical landmarks of Taj Mahal and Fatehpur
Sikri.
We see Braille signage and audio guides that help to explain the
historical significance of the site to the visually impaired. The audio
guides in different languages are very useful for both domestic and
international tourists who do not understand Hindi or English.
Wooden ramps have been placed to avoid permanent alterations to the
heritage site. They are practical and have the right gradient for
wheelchairs.
It is possible to wheel around the compound and absorb the beauty of the
Taj. However, the ramps only connect to the first level of the marble
mausoleum. There are about 25 steps leading up to the main mausoleum
which is inaccessible to them.
Sminu has enjoyed her tour. "This is my first time I went up really
close. For me it's a very emotional moment to actually go there and see
Taj once again, it's a national heritage and we all are so proud of it. I
really want to thank ASI to think about it in such an open fashion and
make it accessible to all and everyone be it a pregnant woman, an old
women or disabled person. Seeing places with so much accessibility
actually gives a lot of people hope and that hope is priceless. This
makes India come across as a very friendly country, this is a country
where people enjoy the soul more than the body. "
Svayam has suggested that the ASI use a hydraulic lift to make the main mausoleum accessible to wheelchair users.
Dr Bhuvan Vikrama, Superintending Archaeologist of ASI, Agra Circle,
says," It was considered long back. But it was because of the dimensions
involved, some new inclusions were involved. At that time it was not
found feasible. Maybe with the new technology, when they become sleek
and less intrusive. I mean that is going to be in the view so the total
balance of the structure is going to be hampered with that."
We had other concerns regarding accessibility. The battery powered vans
which take tourists to the Taj Mahal from the parking area do not have
ramps. The vans, operated by the Agra Development Authority, run in the
zero emission zone which ends 1 km from the Taj.
There are no tactile blocks leading the visually impaired to the braille signage.
Though there is a designated accessible toilet at the Taj, the ramp
leading to it is steep. Worse, we found it poorly maintained, making it
user-unfriendly to all, let alone wheelchair users.
In response, Dr Vikrama said he would look into the issues. About the
toilets, he said the maintenance agencies would be contacted.
The Fatehpur Sikri group of monuments in Agra, also a world heritage
site like the Taj, is almost fully accessible and Sminu covers the vast
expanse on her wheelchair.
While the ASI works on gradually making all monuments under them
accessible, many hotels are working on providing tourists accessible
accommodation
Amit Manga, an entrepreneur and independent business traveler,
accompanies us to the Lemon Tree Hotel Company that is redefining the
term accessibility.
A young and award winning hotel chain, the company has upscale, midscale and economy hotels.
Amit will be examining an accessible room in their economy brand, Red Fox Hotels.
Amit says he is satisfied by the hotel's accessibility standards. "The
first thing I noticed was the flooring and that is fantastic. It has to
be wooden, non-carpeted flooring or a marble flooring. That's very
essential for the wheelchair to move around conveniently and smoothly.
The bed height is perfect and the most essential part is the washroom.
It was large, it's got grab rails all around and the height of the
vanity counter is right. Even the shower is a roll in shower. There and
no steps, no edges. Closet also, they have got a shelf which is at a
height easily accessible by a wheelchair user. Many hotels overlook
these little things.
Amit suggests that the chairs in the room be traditional ones with
armrests as guests like him would feel more secure when seated in them.
He says he is familiar with experiencing disappointment with so called accessible hotels.
"These are the big names in the hotel industry like the ITC Maurya
Sheraton at the heart of Delhi. It's a very old hotel and I go there
very often, I love the food there, but they don't have something as
basic as an accessible toilet on the lobby level. They do have an
accessible room, which is again not up to the mark.
Hotels do have guidelines but they don't have compliance. In the west,
they have very strict compliance issues. A ramp has to be of certain
gradience, opening of the door has to be of certain width. There are too
many variables in India.
Accessibility is an integral part of the Lemon Tree business model.
About 13 per cent of the employees, that is nearly 400 of the 3,000, are
people with disabilities. Most of them are hearing and speech impaired,
and general managers in the chain are expected to learn sign language
to communicate with them. The company has now started taking people who
are orthopedically impaired and those with Down Syndrome. The inclusive
work policy has sensitized the staff to the needs of guests with
disabilities.
Aradhana Lal, Vice President, Sustainability Initiatives at The Lemon
Tree Hotel Company, said, "If we bring awareness, I don't see why any
hotel company wouldn't bring in accessibility because it makes so much
business sense. You open yourself up to such a huge customer base that
you were not open to."
Accessible tourism is seen as the fastest growing business opportunity
in the tourism industry. In North America alone, people with
disabilities spend more than $13 billion each year on travel. While
there are positive changes across all sectors, accessible tourism is an
evolving knowledge universe. Take for instance, airlines, which are
learning to meet the special needs of passengers.
Samuel Mani, who has cerebral palsy, is at the airport to experience the
services extended by Indigo airlines to passengers with disability or a
medical condition.
The airlines would like the passenger or his family to inform customer
care in advance about the nature of the assistance required.
Mani is met by the ground airline crew.
"I am Japneet, Indigo Employee. I will be here to escort you till the airplane. Thank you."
A key question often is whether the passenger would like to be
transferred to the airline wheelchair. But Mani, who uses a wheelchair
customised for him, is most comfortable in his own wheelchair. For most
people living with disabilities, the wheelchair is like an extension of
their body.
He is wheeled to the check in counter for his boarding pass and taken for a security check.
Attendants now take him towards the boarding area. The ramps at the
airport seem steep and a wheelchair user would not have been able to
negotiate them on their own.
The airline buses have ramps which not only help wheelchair users but
all passengers with reduced mobility, like senior citizens.
Once he is taken off the bus, Mani is shifted to a narrow aisle
wheelchair. His wheelchair will be folded and carried separately.
Perhaps the most innovative are the zigzag boarding ramps to the Indigo
aircraft. They are the only airlines to have them, and the ramp allows
wheelchairs and stretchers to be taken into the aircraft effortlessly.
Since the aerobridge is not always available on domestic flights, Mani
tells us other airlines lift him up bodily along with the wheelchair
which scares him.
The airline is also the only one to have a braille menu.
Samuel Mani, who is CEO of Neutron Computers and Founder of Yes! We Can,
said, "It was a very good experience; it was a positive change and
being in India positive changes are very few."
Indigo follows a proactive policy to ensure the best service and
accessibility to their passengers with disabilities who are also paying
customers. At the training school, cabin attendants, pilots and other
staff go through an eight hour training module.
In recent weeks there have been complaints against Air India for a
faulty wheelchair and Indigo for deplaning a deafblind passenger and
there is learning for all concerned. Take into account the fact that
there is a high turnover of airport attendants who are outsourced and
the fact that there are diverse disabilities with diverse needs.
More detailed communication of the passengers' needs to the airlines by the family would also help.
Accessibility means different things to different people. For a wheel
chair user, it's a ramp, a non-slippery surface. For somebody who is
blind it might mean tactile tiles, audio guides. For deaf person, its
visual signals, a sign language interpreter. For someone who is
intellectually challenged, it will be safe spaces, and prevention of
very loud noises or bright lights.
City transportation plays a key role in experiencing the world. Nikhil,
Gajendra and Goldy come with us for a ride on the Delhi metro.
The three have spinal cord injuries. Gajendra fell from a tree, Goldy
was in a bike accident, and Nikhil in a swimming pool accident. Though
they have no power in their fingers, they have trained themselves to
operate their manual wheelchairs and are regular users of the metro.
They find the metro accessible but say it would be better if the coaches
had ramps and easy to use seat belts.
Nikhil Kumar Gupta, who is senior quality assurance engineer at Oracle,
said, "In many places, there is a height difference between the platform
and the metro door. So we have to essentially lift up our wheelchair.
Sometimes we can manage it. At other times we have to wait for someone
to support us. Only then we will be able to enter. We all are trained
but not all wheelchair users are trained for doing that."
The designated wheelchair spaces are in the ladies coach.They find it
convenient, since the ladies coach has more space than the others and
they are able to get the back support they need. But occasionally there
is a problem.
"Sometimes we are not allowed to travel in the ladies coach. The guard
asks us to get up from the wheelchair just to check whether we are
actually disabled or not. There is no awareness about the fact that if
someone is on a wheelchair, he just cannot stand up," says Nikhil.
22-year-old Anmol, a student at the Noida Deaf Society, is happy with
the LED visual signals. Through sign language, he communicates that he
finds the Metro easy and convenient.
We notice that tactile tiles that help the visually impaired are missing at a couple of metro stations.
A welcome development is that movie theatres are becoming accessible.
At the Inox Eros theatre, Gajendra and Goldy are joined by Shishir
Bhatnagar a maritime consultant who was injured in a swimming pool
accident.
The three are happy that the theatre has no steps anywhere, that there
is an accessible lift and toilet. Orders for snacks can be taken both
inside the theatre and in the lobby by the theatre staff.
There is a wooden ramp inside the theatre. But Shishir points out that
it is steep and they need help wheeling over it. The management promises
to build a new one.
Shishir points out, "It's very important that they take feedback from
the actual wheelchair users. Often I have seen a place is made
accessible by somebody who doesn't know anything about accessibility.
It's like a loop because the cinema halls would say why should we put
ramps you know people in wheelchairs anyway don't come to see movies.
But because it's not accessible they don't come. So till you put in
ramps they are not going to come. It is the same with restaurants and
shopping places."
Alok Tandon, CEO, INOX Leisure Ltd, said, "I would say that all our new
properties, all the properties that we have designed from as a green
field project are accessible. There are a few properties which we have
acquired over a period of time. There too we ensure that at least one or
two auditoriums are wheelchair friendly."
While accessibility is the rising travel trend, finding critical
information regarding accessible travel is tough. To meet this need,
Mumbai entrepreneur Yeshwant Holkar has launched the country's first
online travel platform for people with disabilities. Umoja.in is like a
search engine for people to find hotels that can meet their
accessibility needs.
Yeshwant Holkar, CEO and Founder of UMOJA, says, "I realized that there
are so many people actually that need this. There are 1.1 billion people
in the world with disabilities so why not try and leverage technology
to provide this kind of information for people who need it so that they
can really travel with confidence."
Mr Holkar believes that while a number of hotels may not yet be
universally accessible, they have put in the work to become accessible
to certain categories. The guest wins, the hotel wins.
"We are actually opening up to any hotel in India that would like to
understand how accessible they are and for what type of disability they
are accessible we are inviting them to come on the site download our app
or we can send them an offline version of the assessment and we will
provide them a comprehensive absolutely free report of exactly how
their hotel is accessible," he says.
Umoja.in wants to become a marketplace for accessible restaurants, taxi
services, health care providers, professional caregivers, and equipment
rentals. Clearly these initiatives across different sectors will unlock
travel for many people. It's a signal that accessibility's time has
come.
Source: ND TV , 13th June 2015
