Stakeholders weigh in on accessibility for the differently abled in Mumbai

AntiSocial in Lower Parel has an open floor plan to help disabled people navigate the area better, apart from accessible toilets and a ramp at the entrance

WHO is Sumit Antil? Let's make it easier for you if you don't know the answer. Who's Neeraj Chopra? If you know that he is the javelin gold medalist for India at the Tokyo Olympics, and didn't know that Antil won the same honour at the Paralympics in the same city, then we are afraid to say that you might just be part of the problem when it comes to othering disabled people in our society. Because the fact is that despite our Paralympians outstripping able-bodied sportsmen at the two Games this year, the situation on the ground for disabled people in India is so woeful that their needs remain an afterthought not just for governmental authorities, but most private institutions too.

Think of the last restaurant you visited. Did it have a ramp at the entrance? Was there a section designated for disabled people at the last parking lot you drove into? Was there a sign-language expert for deaf people at the last live event you attended? The one answer to all these questions, in all probability, is a resounding ‘no'. But why is that, when affirmative accessibility is a basic right for all human beings, when it's not something that disabled people should be thanking the authorities for with folded hands?

Bharti Gehani and Anusha Misra

One of the answers, says Anusha Misra, who runs the group Revival Disability Community, is that there is a lack of disabled voices in policy-making. "We need footpaths without broken tiles for wheelchair-bound folks and tactile paths to help the blind," they (Misra's preferred pronoun) tell us about merely two obstacles that disabled people face, but which the authorities seem to have turned a blind eye to. Why? Because their priorities are skewed, answers architect Alan Abraham, pointing out how - even when airports have almost all the necessary facilities - not a single train station in Mumbai, which see far more footfall, had an escalator or elevator till as late as 2012.

It's not just the powers that be, though. At least they mandate disability-access in government buildings. But private players like restaurants and offices hardly ever follow the "recommendations" that the authorities give them to make their spaces more accessible, says Mithila Kumar, who designed the revamped AntiSocial in Lower Parel, one of the rare places in Mumbai that kept the needs of disabled people in mind. It doesn't take much, she tells us. Make sure that the entrance has a ramp, and the door and passageway are both three-feet wide. Minimise partitions in the interior so that wheelchair-bound people have fewer impediments. Also, and this is a big one, make provisions for accessible toilets with doors that open outwards and a knee-clearing radius of five feet, because imagine for a second what a nightmare it would be if you were five pints of beer down at a bar and couldn't visit the loo.

Mithila Kumar Alan Abraham

The idea here, Kumar adds - and which is something that Abraham echoes - is less about disability access than it is about universal access. "Elderly people who have trouble climbing steps would also benefit from a ramp at the entrance," Abraham says. "Those who are gender-neutral would feel more comfortable in a single toilet meant for the wheelchair-bound," Kumar chimes in. She explains that there are international standards for accessibility design that tell you how much space to keep for movement and what the maximum slope for a ramp should be. Following these guidelines would make life simpler for a lot of other people than just those with disabilities.

But, it's the latter group we are focusing on here. They, after all, are everyday people who need to visit everyday institutions like banks, which is where Bharti Gehani was at when we called her for her perspective. She is a wheelchair-bound life coach and owner of an accessible salon, and says, "There are a minimum of two steps at the entrance to a bank. And even if we have access to a mall, we will invariably be faced with stairs if we are to visit the movie theatre in it. Forget that, hospitals don't have parking areas for people like me. Can you imagine it? We play. We work. We pay taxes. So, why don't we have the basic accessibility we need?"

It's a fair question, and maybe it's time for us citizens to look into the mirror, too. Abraham points out how we are usually always ready to help a disabled person in need. But we also need to go beyond that. "Does your building society have a ramp at the entrance to help disabled people?" he asks. If it doesn't, have you tried bringing the issue up with your society? If not, then maybe it's time you considered doing it, because that's exactly the sort of affirmative action that will ensure that one day, we as a country put our Antils and Chopras on the same pedestal.