Mabalacat Association of Persons with Disability

To adequately equip the “disabled-friendly” websites as tools used to generate IT-related work opportunities for persons with disabilities, the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons started a three-day national workshop for webmasters here in Cebu yesterday.

The workshop, entitled “Webmasters’ Interface on Accessible Information and Communication Technology (ICT): Empowering Persons with Disabilities through ICT”, is being participated in by about 75 webmasters from government and non-government organizations nationwide. This event will assess the impact of three formerly held regional workshops that greatly inspired participating agencies to come up with websites that are accessible to the physically impaired individuals. It will also formulate relevant standards and guidelines to bolster economic activities supportive of the disability sector.

Among the topics discussed during the workshop was “outsourcing”, a phenomenon created with the advent of the internet, which allows internet users to compete and participate in globalization. These “internet users” can even be people who know only a thing or two about computers and practical encoding. Access to the World Wide Web is all that is needed. All users, including those who have disabilities, now have the opportunity to work online through adaptive technology.

Considering the fact that increasing Information Technology (IT)-related jobs brought by western countries have opened up many jobs for Filipinos, those with disabilities included, easy access to websites would be a good help.

Medical transcriptions, call centers, data conversion and others continue to boom nowadays. By having jobs like these within reach, the disabled persons are given a wider array of jobs to choose from other than craft-making and the likes.

“Our society is in dire need of citizens who are able to contribute to national development, and that includes people who, despite their disability, can perform duties most (other) people can,” Catalina Fermin, executive director of NCWDP said in a speech she gave on behalf of DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral. To adequately equip the disabled sector, the government aims to make all its programs open to them through full web accessibility and usability, prioritizing agencies with programs critical to economic activities of Persons with Disabilities.

One of the outcomes of this project will be a plan of action that will be developed and presented by all the participants to strengthen and ensure that their websites are fully accessible by 2007.

City Councilor Gerardo Carillo is pushing for the passage of a proposed measure that seeks to require owners of buildings, establishments, institutions, and other public utilities to install barrier-free facilities and features to enhance the ability of differently abled persons.

Carillo, who is the council’s chairman of the committee on social services, acted on the information disclosed by the Regional Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons that 90 percent of all accidents among people with disabilities occurred in the toilet and bathroom.

The People With Disabilities revealed that the specification of grab bars as provided for in BP 344, otherwise known as “An Act to Enhance the Mobility of Disabled Persons by Requiring Certain Buildings, Institutions, Establishments and Public Utilities to Install Facilities and Other Devices”, is “not disabled-friendly.”

It was found out that such grab bars do not have vertical bars for pulling or climbing up, are too high, or do not provide leverage.

They also disclosed that the required maximum height of lavatories under BP 344, which is 0.80 meter, is quite high for their small physique as well as for their wheelchairs that are made small to fit into car trunks.

“Hence, there is a critical need to require buildings, institutions, establishments and other public utilities in the city of Cebu to install disabled-friendly design of grab bars in toilets and the installation of lavatories with a height of .75 meter,” Carillo’s proposed ordinance read.

Taking into consideration the predicament of the PWDs, Carillo drafted a proposed measure to address such problem and to correct the deficiency of the national law.

Carillo’s proposed ordinance stated that it is in compliance of a provision of the 1991 Local Government Code which mandates that “the Sangguniang Panlungsod shall approve ordinances that shall, among others, provide for the care of disabled…”

As such, his proposed ordinance seeks to make it mandatory the installation of grab bars with the following descriptions: standing L-shaped, vertical for pull-up, lower horizontal bar, and bars on both sides.

It also requires building owners to install lavatories in the washroom area with a height of .75 meter.

Should this proposed ordinance be passed into law, building owners who would fail to comply with any of its provisions shall be imposed with a P2,000 fine for the first offense; P3,000 fine for the second offense; and P5,000 fine for the third offense as well as the suspension of business permit until it shall be able to comply with the local law.

Hinikayat kahapon ni Senator Manny Villar ang mga may-ari ng commercial establishments na gawing “disabled-friendly” ang kanilang mga gusali para maging maayos ang paggalaw ng mga may kapansanan.

Sinabi ni Sen. Villar, ang sinumang establisimiyento na susunod sa pagkakaroon ng structure na “disabled-friendly” ay bibigyan naman ng tax incentives.

Sa ilalim ng panukalang ito ay inaatasan ang Department of Public Works and Highways sa pakikipagtulungan ng Health department para magkatuwang na idisenyo ang pagkakaroon ng naturang mga gusali. (Ulat ni Rudy Andal)