Accessibility, what’s that?

Ade Adepitan at the Parthenon. Pic courtesy/Youtube

Travel shows on the telly, especially the internationally charted, slickly produced content kind, is something I tend to avoid watching, simply because it leaves one feeling crummy for not having yet seen these spectacular sights and sounds in far-flung corners of the globe. But there are times when they shine a light on informative developments that offer fresh perspective and help contextualise things with a world-view lens. More importantly, it reminds us of how much we lag behind, if we are to call ourselves as a ‘world city'.

Case in point was a recent capsule where Ade Adepitan, the wheel-chair bound host of the BBC's The Travel Show, took viewers on a virtual trip to Athens's Acropolis, to the site of the historic Parthenon. He sighed about how it was one of the places on his bucket list that were off-bounds for tourists like him as it could be reached only after climbing countless steps. Putting good use to the time when most tourist destinations across the world had been shut to visitors owing to the pandemic, the keepers of this Greek treasure built a massive lift along one side of the foundations in a seamless grid-like plan that would enable people like Adepitan to reach all the way to the top of this elevated UNESCO World Heritage Site. Elated to learn of this development, he made the trip to check it out in April this year. As the camera followed him negotiating the site and soaking in its historic relevance, he humoured us with comments like now he too could explore the place just like the "two-legged kinds."

The perpetually cheery host was in even better spirits, vrooming around the stunning landmark without any hindrance or hurdle, nor did he need help from fellow tourists at any point. That he was in a wheelchair was completely forgotten. Later on in that segment, when he spoke to one of the brains behind the idea, who worked at the museum attached to the site, the Greek expert shared how this simple and sensitively made addition to the site had not only increased footfalls but had also ensured that a heritage-rich world city could now boast of world-class facilities to assist every kind of tourist.

How many tourist attractions and landmarks in our city and its outskirts can actually say the same with confidence? Your guess is as good as ours. To cite an example from earlier this year, an exhibition was conducted in a city public space but a friend with a senior citizen parent rued how she could not take her along simply because the septuagenarian would not be able to climb a flight of over 15 steps to enter the space. Needless to say, the venue had no lift or provision of a wheelchair and ramp to ensure visitors with mobility issues could see the exhibition, or even if they did, there was no information shared about this facility.

Two of the city's most popular tourist attractions - CSMT and Gateway of India - come to mind to drive home this void. The former is far from friendly to the wheel-chair bound, and even if there was a ramp or two, the crowd management here would make any wheelchair-bound tourist-from another part of India or the world--think a million times before venturing inside this UNESCO World Heritage Site to gaze at its Gothic splendour. The Gateway fares a shade better, simply because it is on terra firma and not a closed-up site, minus any levels to negotiate that could add to hurdles. Still, it is a nightmare even for the able-bodied to enter the plaza, especially on a weekend, so it could become an automatic no-show for any differently-abled tourist.

Let's move to the other equally popular tourist destination, the famed Elephanta Caves, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Any of us who've made the trip and the trek to the top will tell you that right from the jetty exit at Apollo Bunder to the arrival on the island, the journey is mired with roadblocks for the wheel-chair bound, senior or mobility-challenged tourist. We've watched in horror where such folk are perched on a palkhi as one human being bears the load of the other [often not in proportion to the carrier's weight or body strength] to reach the summit to view the caves. We believe this routine must be played out across most tourist destinations across India.

Tourism is just one aspect to highlight this gaping void. If we wish to make ours a disabled-friendly city, let's not forget the existence of the wheelchair-bound, as if they were children of a lesser God. It is their right as much as ours to access, explore and experience every part of Bombay. Just look around and you'll see this uncomfortable reality being played out every day on our streets and in our buildings. Isn't it high time that our civic gods make it mandatory to ensure inclusive and sensitive plans for all public spaces, for starters, at least? Swanky bus shelters and message-heavy graffiti walls can wait.

mid-day's Features Editor Fiona Fernandez relishes the city's sights, sounds, smells and stones...wherever the ink and the inclination takes her. She tweets @bombayana

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