Questionnaire

Times of India, August 20, 2011



How many times have you:

• seen an elevator with no braille signs marked next to the door buttons?
• even noticed that the elevator you use in your office or apartment complex every day has or does not have braille markings in it?
• noticed whether the edges of steps are made of a different texture than the rest of the step (so that a blind person will know the step is coming to an end there)?
• wondered how hearing impaired students cope with our system of education?
• heard people tell somebody with mobility problems that a distance of hundred metres `is very close by' or that `there are only a few steps' when there is no ramp for easy wheel-chair access?
• seen a lecturer in a class room draw something on the board to explain something, and wondered how a blind student would follow?
• been to a party on a roof-top which necessitates that anyone coming there should climb some twenty steps even after having taken an elevator to the `top floor', and wondered if the plight of the mobility impaired was even considered before either the party or the elevator was planned?
• seen doors that have been fitted which are not wide enough for a wheel-chair to pass through?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind ...