KL to be disabled friendly soon

Dear Mayor,

Can you explain City Hall's involvement in providing facilities for the disabled?

AK
Kuala Lumpur

Tan Sri Ahmad Fuad Ismail: We at City Hall want to ensure that our city's development takes into account the needs and facilities for the disabled. The idea is to integrate disabled people into society so that they can play active roles and lead normal lives. The aim is to provide a barrier-free environment for the independence, convenience and safety of people with disabilities.

A concrete step we have taken is to set up the Committee for the Development of the Disabled in 2006 to ensure compliance to existing regulations for standards related to facilities for the disabled -- Malaysian Standards 1883 and 1184 and MS1331 under Development Order since 2007.

The latest initiative is the setting up of the building standards and innovation unit which is responsible for tackling issues related to the disabled such as an access audit.

KL residents will be encouraged to know that this unit was set up in May last year, a year before the directive from the Ministry of Housing and Local Government was issued in June this year to set up an access audit unit in each local public housing project.

Since the unit was set up, it has organised four series of disabled access audit workshops, where more than 136 City Hall staff have been trained and about 21 access audits in myriad development typologies have been implemented.

We are in the process of moving towards a barrier-free city by next year, which will be 75 per cent disabled friendly.

Serious efforts and initiatives have to be implemented and upgraded by all parties to achieve this target. These efforts are to make the city more safe, usable and accessible for disabled people.

City Hall will also arrange preparatory programmes for public facilities for the disabled in areas outside buildings to fulfill the barrier-free and universal design concept. This will include tactile for the blind or guiding blocks for the sight-impaired, ramps for wheelchairs, step ramps, integral lampposts and single pole street signs.

Barrier-free design strives to make the built environment accessible to and usable by all persons. It promotes integration and independence through designs that are safe, functional and dignified for everybody.

A number of streets have been equipped with guiding blocs for the blind, for example, in Jalan Ipoh, Jalan P. Ramlee, Jalan Parlimen, Jalan Pinang, Jalan Raja Chulan, Jalan Semarak, Jalan Stoner, in front of KL Football Stadium Jalan Tenteram, Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Tun Sambanthan Roundabout, Jalan Sultan Abdul Samad, Jalan Telawi, Jalan Berhala, Jalan Bangsar, Jalan Bukit Bintang and a portion of Jalan Sultan Ismail.

Integral lamp posts which are designed specially to reduce the number of lamp posts along walkways to reduce barriers can be used as streetlights, decorative lights, street signs or even traffic lights at junctions. At this time, integral lamp posts have been installed along Jalan Sultan Ismail, a portion of Jalan P. Ramlee, Jalan Bukit Bintang and Jalan Raja Chulan.

Single pole signboards of this kind have been erected to reduce barriers and its height has been designed so that people can walk under it safely. The installation of these single pole signboards have begun in the city centre and will be widened to include other areas.

It is our hope that these initiatives will be implemented successfully so that disabled people are able to commute between home, work and other destinations hassle-free.

When people of all range of abilities move freely at will, the city will have achieved the stature it aspires in terms of accessibility for all. On that note, please rest assured that City Hall is steadily gaining ground.