A Barrier Free Environment : The key towards integrating the disabled into the national mainstream.

To address the problems of the differently abled and to integrate them into the national mainstream, one of the key pre-requisites is the need for a barrier free environment. With a large number of over 70 million disabled in India, the need to create a barrier free environment for this huge population has assumed a lot of importance. Statistics point out only 3% of the disabled population is gainfully employed. Since the setting up of the first special employment exchange in 1959 only 100,000 persons have been employed till date.

The National Sample Survey points out that more than 7 million employable disabled people are still waiting for a job. One of the biggest stumbling blocks that have been preventing the disabled from competing with the general abled population has been the constraints they face regarding mobility. It is almost impossible for a person with disability in India to reach his destination without help. The lack of proper footpaths, road crossing facilities, friendly public transport system, lack of friendly access to public places have all been dampners and prevented the integration of the disabled into the mainstream.

In fact, one of the major problems faced by the differently abled has been the lack of improved access to buildings and work places which has hampered employment opportunities for them both from the employers side and from their side. This is a problem that needs to be addressed and it is imperative that various stakeholders and different sections of the society needs to be sensitized on providing a barrier free environment.

The disabled population can generally be classified into four groups, people with impaired mobility, people with visual impairment, people with hearing impairment and people with learning disabilities and mental retardation.

People with impaired mobility are generally wheel chair users and face a lot of problems in proper accessibility if the buildings are not disabled friendly. A lot of attention has to be paid regarding approaches to the building, space, floor surface, approaches, doors, seating spaces and other facilities. The most important thing to be noted here is that most wheelchairs have a seat height of about 500mm and the reach of the wheelchair user is confined to a zone of 700 mm to 1200 mm. So a lot of thought should be given while providing access to workbench, tables, washbasins etc. Special care should be taken in providing disabled friendly toilets. For people with ambulant disability, the floor surfaces should be even and slip resistant. They would need the help of hand rails and preferably for easy mobility and access.

For people with impaired vision, orientation can be aided by marking with the