People, they are often not even for wheelchair users, however, they represent obstacles that cannot be overcome without the help of: stairs, steps and edges. They are everywhere: In shops, in railway stations, on public places – the list could go on and on. When boarding a train often wide gaps or differences in height in addition to the short way from the platform into the wagon for a wheelchair to be insurmountable.
And although accessibility for the last ten years is prescribed in the UN CRPD in Germany, there are still a lot of places that are difficult or impossible for people in wheelchairs or with walking difficulties not accessible. The disability officer of the Federal government, Jürgen fuddle, in many areas need to be improved for people with disabilities. Accessibility is about should be in construction projects “to the required Standard,” he said of the Newspapers of the editorial network in Germany on the anniversary of the Convention on Tuesday. Such a rule is called fuddle for social housing, in principle, you should apply but also for private clients. “Accessibility must be normal”, – stressed the representative for persons with disabilities – “to build barriers, is nonsense.” Every cinema and every Café, not to be accessible, from close people.
Interactive map for wheelchair accessibility
Ausschnnitt “Wheelmap.org” – to the interactive map, around 960.000 entries here.
About the same time as the entry into force of the disability Convention on the rights of the website “Wheelmap.org was founded in 2009”. The card was launched by the Berlin-based project “social heroes”, developed and maintained. By using a Community information to the wheelchair accessibility will be collected and on an interactive map. “Within just ten years, the wheelchair-righteousness of nearly 960.000 publicly accessible locations like cafes, supermarkets, shops, museums, schools, cinemas, railway stations, has been so collected and more – places where the social life takes place or for the mobility in everyday life is important,” reads the project’s website.
Accessibility is still capable of improvement
For the tenth anniversary, the makers evaluated how the wheelchair of justice in Germany has developed. The chart below shows, as a result, the ratio of the “fully wheelchair accessible”, “partially wheelchair” and “wheelchair-accessible” places in Germany.
Graphics to a wheelchair justice in Germany: the North-South divide apparent
The conclusion: There is still much air upward. “It’s nice that we see in most States, the Trend is positive, but improvements of an average of six percent within five years is still capable of expansion”, Raul Krauthausen, even in a wheelchair, and one of the activists in the “social heroes quotes”, Wheelmap.org .
Sources: “Wheelmap.org”, “Social Heroes”
