This is a unique character of the project: evaluation of the environment was made by specialists but not by volunteers. Using the created by them evaluation instrument they inspected 29 stations of Belarusian metro. It is important to notice that accessibility is considered as a continuity of a route but not as a complex of separate elements which can or cannot be connected with each other. In the latter case we can say that you can just go by train from the first to the last station of the line but cannot use it in full measure as an accessible transport.
The project “Metro for all” was presented at the Accessibility Week 2014. Its initiators say that it has been created for people who constantly use metro but are people with limited mobility. For example, very often access to public transport is very problematic for persons in wheelchairs, elderly people, parents with strollers and people with large luggage.
Gathered and placed at a special site data shows which route to prefer to make a trip more comfortable and accessible. The data is a good tip for public transportation system workers, because it helps to define where and what has to be changed in order to widen architectural and informational accessibility. Earlier this project was topical for Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and Warsaw, now – for Minsk.
Coordinator of the Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Sergey Drozdovsky says: - Some time ago volunteers held the evaluation of accessibility of some objects with the help of specially designed tool, for example, it was done before World Hockey Championship 2014. Our colleagues used their own methodology and didn’t use the help of volunteers and expert did all the evaluation by themselves. In general we support the initiative of our Moscow colleagues but it would be good to take into account some national peculiarities.
Because Russian template was used it hadn’t been clear how to understand the data before the special instruction was published at the web-site. For example, a passenger knows that at the station there are 73 steps and only 53 of them are provided with elevator. It is not clear if the other steps are an architectural barrier or not and if a person in a wheelchair or a mother with a stroller can freely move around. Although we know from the practice that even one step can be an unsurmountable barrier on the way to getting inside.
Another obvious minus Sergey Drozdovsky mentions is the lack of the resource’s dynamics. Practically it means that there is an elevator or a lift at the metro station but you do not understand if they work, during what time they can be used and what are the peculiarities of their usage. It can lead to a situation when a person with limited mobility will be sure, referring to the map of metro accessibility, that he will be able to leave the necessary station, because it is equipped by an elevator, but on practice will face the fact that it is not working. And at that moment it will be completely not important if there is an elevator or not…
- Russian experts tried to make a positive fact of what for Belarus is a minus, - says the expert. – For example, evaluating accessibility they mentioned the presence of access ramps – metal “rails” on the steps. They are an architectural element which is at the same time positive and negative. Only in rare cases you can see helping access ramps and from the point of view of a person in a wheelchair this thing is very nonfunctional and even dangerous. During rush hour any person can get hurt because of them – an elderly person, a child or a person in a wheelchair. But the important fact is that access ramps are a Russian practice which is illegal and banned by the legislation in Belarus.
The construction of access ramps is not regulated during the projecting of buildings, so it means that if there are access ramps they are just an unauthorized activity of an architect and practically it is illegal. That is why creating such resources it is important to take into account national character of every country.
- In the future we should think how to create such services in our country so that they would be dynamic and topical. Service should also give a possibility to participate in their evaluation and transformation by other subjects – those who use them and those who are responsible for them – in this case metro services and the city’s authorities. But the work done is the logical continuation of the accessibility concept promoted by the Office for the rights of persons with disabilities.
Interesting facts of the research:
- Overall number of Minsk metro stations – 29
- Only 5 stations are accessible for wheelchair-bound disabled, elderly people and other categories of people with limited mobility. Only these 5 stations have routes for people with limited mobility,
- 17 station are accessible for people with strollers
- 11 stations are equipped with elevators, 8 – by ramps for disabled. Not all of them are working: inspection showed that 13 out of 22 elevators and 6 ramps out of 24 were working.
Stations with routes accessible for wheelchair-bound disabled, elderly people and other people with limited mobility:
- Kamiennaja Horka
- Spartyŭnaja
- Mahilioŭskaja
- Uručča
- Barysaŭski trakt
Stations with working (at the time of inspection) elevators/ramps for people with disabilities:
- Kamiennaja Horka
- Spartyŭnaja
- Mahilioŭskaja
- Uručča
- Barysaŭski trakt
- Piatroŭščyna
- Michalova
- Kuncaŭščyna
