How long will disabled lives be sacrificed due to crying govt departments claiming they don't have money for pension funds?
Cost of low floor bus
vs
cost of disabled person's education, livelihood and freedom.
How can we even compare without looking at the bigger picture? #A11y
Disabled people are under involuntary house arrest due to inaccessible public transport.
The Govt of Tamil Nadu has magnanimously made travel free for women and disabled @mkstalin .
Yay mobility = right, but how can a wheelchair user board a 3 step bus?
Low floor is for all
MTC has some cheek using the pandemic as an excuse when all TN's 4000+ buses bought since Madras High Court's order in 2016, are in contempt of the mandate of disabled-friendly buses.
At ~1100 mm floor height, they're under the TRUCK, not bus code!
With those 4000+ accessible buses, new worlds could have opened up for @RajivSpeaks , the petitioner who's spent his youth - 20 years waiting for the state to do the right thing.
Would you much rather we exist and die in our houses drawing paltry disability allowances than LIVE?
If ethics and empathy do not come easy, how about you just comply with the law?
Under #RPwDA India's disability act, the deadline for public transport service accessibility pan India was 15 June 2019.
Tamil Nadu by flouting Madras High Court's 2016 order got away for 5 years.
We cannot allow this charade of "public (but not for disabled) transport" to continue.
Not at the cost of our lives.
No lift workarounds for city buses at the cost of our safety.
A disabled-friendly bus for intra-city use can only be a level boarding low floor / low entry bus
The only road map disabled people need is :
* unencroached, wheelchair-friendly pavements with curb cuts and tactile warnings
* 400 mm bus shelter platform to enable easy boarding of low floor bus (required from 2012)
* Low floor buses + foldaway ramps
* Puffin crossings
* GTFS
This is your how manyth road map with mock earnest reassurances @RajivSpeaks ?
This begs for a cartoon titled 'Long and winding road to bus accessibility in Madras High Court'
Stars a wheelchair user growing old waiting to board while MTC buses pass by
Dear @Subramanian_ma ,
It has come to our notice that @NHM_TN and @chennaicorp have planned a 'drive' tomorrow (29-7-21) in Chennai with 19 buses to 'round up' destitute homeless people with significant mental health problems and bus them for eventual treatment.
This is unlawful
Only @chennaipolice_ is authorised to intervene in this case as per Mental Health Care Act 2017. ONLY when police officer of area jurisdiction has reason to believe of person wandering at large that there is presence of mental illness AND inability to fend for self / poses risk
Even in case of this subset, the police is to inform the person of the grounds for taking into protection. With your 19 buses and target of 400 unsuspecting homeless PLMI, HOW do you propose to do this in one day.
More importantly, WHY would you choose such a dehumanising way?
Redo it @MoHFW_INDIA
#20 Persons with disabilities due to Intellectual disabilities/ Muscular Dystrophy/ Acid attack with involvement of respiratory system/ Persons with disabilities having high support needs/ Multiple disabilities including deaf-blindness pib.gov.in/PressReleasePa…
Disability need not be a co-morbidity, but most disabled citizens in the Indian context, are at a higher risk for Covid acquisition and death. And while the inclusion of some disabilities in India's Phase II vaccination strategy is welcome from an inclusion pov, it's not enough.
So call this a vaccine priority list of high risk groups instead of a co-morbidity list @NITIAayog . And remove the age bar for disability - there is enough evidence in India's Covid death data to support what every disabled Indian knows - they rarely emerge alive from hospitals.
We've had to defy Govt rules on approved content, in the interest of serving the disability community in India by making a resource for a range of specific needs of PwD in India - sign language, AAC, media description, EasyRead... #DIDRRbit.ly/aider-covid19
Shame @MSJE_AIC !
What about sustaining other regular life-saving interventions in the time of #covidindia ?
Blood for those who are transfusion dependent and disinfection protocols for those who are dialysis dependent for a start?