Enabling India: Accessible Metro

NEW DELHI:  City transportation plays a key role in experiencing the world. Nikhil, Gajendra and Goldy come with us for a ride on the Delhi Metro, one of the most disabled friendly public transport systems in the country. 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 metro coaches had ramps and easy to use seat belts.

Nikhil Kumar, who is a senior quality assurance engineer at Oracle, said, "In many places, there is too much difference between the platform and the metro door. So we have to lift up our wheelchair. Sometimes wheelchair users get assistance and sometimes they do not. We three are trained but not all wheelchair users are able to do that on their own."

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The designated wheelchair spaces are in the ladies coach.

"We get the maximum space in the ladies coach and it helps since we can get the back support we need. The problem is that we are not allowed to travel in the ladies coach some times. The guard asks us to get up from the wheelchair to check whether we are actually disabled or not. There is no awareness about the fact that if someone is on a wheelchair, he cannot stand up," said Nikhil.

The accessibility needs are different for different disabilities. 22-year-old Anmol, a student at the Noida Deaf Society, is happy with the LED visual signals on coaches. He communicates that the metro is convenient for the hearing impaired.

The Delhi Metro has braille buttons on lifts and tactile tiles to guide the visually impaired. But we notice tactile tiles missing at the platforms of a couple of metro stations.

Enabling India: Going to the Movies

For many travellers with special needs, movies are the entertainment of choice. Theatre chains have begun to remove barriers that prevent wheelchair users from taking part in the movie going experience.

28-year-old Gajendra and 30-year-old Goldy have spinal cord injuries. Gajendra fell from a tree, while Goldy was injured in a bike accident. Both are wheelchair users. Like others of their age, they like going out, particularly to the movies.

At the Inox Eros theatre in Delhi, they are joined by 32-year-old Shishir Bhatnagar and his wife. Shishir, a maritime consultant, was injured in a swimming pool accident.
The three are happy that the theatre has no stairs anywhere; 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 said, "It's also very important that they take feedback from actual wheelchair users. Very 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 in ramps, people in wheelchairs anyway don't come to see movies? But because it's not accessible they don't come. So, till you don't put in ramps, they are not going to come. It is the same with restaurants and shopping places."

Alok Tandon, CEO of INOX Leisure Ltd, said, "I would say that all our new properties, all the properties that we have designed from as a greenfield project, are accessible. There are 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."

The simple of act of wheelchair users watching a movie is a great message of equality. Now, theatre owners need to take it to the next level and remove the barriers for the hearing-impaired and the visually-impaired through tools like movie captio




Enabling India: Travel Website for People With Disabilities

                     One of the biggest challenges for people in the pre-travel stage is to find information on accessible hotels, attractions and activities. According to a recent EU study, people with disabilities encounter problems preparing a trip. Nearly 42 per cent find information regarding accessible travel insufficient and unreliable.

Says Usha Ismail Cunningham, a tourist and wheelchair user, "I love travelling. It has been very difficult finding places that are friendly, helpful to people with special needs."

A newly launched website, Umoja.in, aims to create an online travel platform for people with disabilities. Umoja is like a search engine for people to find hotels that can meet their accessibility needs.

Umoja conducted a survey of 50 hotels across the country and found that many hotels had made modifications to become accessible to certain categories of guests. For instance, about 70 per cent of the hotels were accessible to wheelchair users.

However, a large number of them were not yet universally accessible.

Umoja will connect hotels to the accessible tourism market. The guest wins, the hotel wins.

Mr Holkar said, "So how we gather this information is via the Umoja app. The app essentially allows any hotel within 90 minutes to answer some simple yes no questions, take some measurements and take its photographs  on a automates streamline fashion."

Umoja.in wants to become a marketplace for accessible restaurants, taxi services, health care providers, professional caregivers, and equipment rentals