Group of differently-abled people asks council help for their welfare

Many of the establishments and buildings in Cebu City are not accommodating to differently-abled people, said an officer of the city’s Accessibility Monitoring Committee, the body that protects the rights of these people.

Gigi Ruiz, an officer of the committee and herself a part of the differently-abled sector, recently sought the support of the City Council for the enforcement of “universal accessibility” in Cebu City.

Ruiz said that many physically-abled people do not know that many establishments and buildings have no facilities or interior structures that could accommodate properly the differently-abled people.

She cited ramps that were built specifically for differently-abled people to enable them and their wheelchairs go up certain levels on buildings, and avoid the risk of slipping their wheelchairs. There are many comfort rooms in the buildings that are too small to maneuver and lack fixtures to assist these people, said Ruiz.

She added that some of these restrooms have doors that are too heavy to open for these people, and have no vertical bars for them to hold on to.

Ruiz contended that the absence of these facilities simply means that Bata Pambansa 344 is not enforced. BP 344 is a law to enhance the mobility of disabled persons by requiring “certain buildings, institutions, establishments and public utilities to install facilities and other devices.”

The Department of Public Works and Highways, the Department of Transportation and Communications, and the National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons jointly fought for its enactment.

The law even made specific categories of persons that are differently-abled that would “dictate the varied measures to be adopted in order to create an accessible environment for the handicapped.”

The categories are: People with impairments that require confinement to wheelchairs; those with impairments causing difficulty or insecurity in walking or climbing stairs or requiring the use of braces, crutches or other artificial supports; those with impairments caused by amputation, arthritis, spastic conditions or pulmonary, cardiac or other ills rendering individuals semi-ambulatory;

Those with total or partial impairments of hearing or sight causing insecurity or like hood of exposure to danger in public places; those with impairments due to conditions of aging and in coordination and; those with mental impairments whether acquired or congenital in nature.

Ruiz said the lack of facilities in these buildings is a downside to the city’s quest to become a center for tourists, several of whom are also differently-abled.

“If design works for people with disabilities, it would surely work for everybody else… if you give us access, we are pretty sure we can give as much to the nation as those non-disabled,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz had disclosed that for the past three years, the committee has not received any budget from the city government for the implementation of projects for the differently-abled sector. — Joeberth M. Ocao/RAE