['Worldclass' Sydney going proudly into the 1950s! --- Trudy] The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/9906/05/text/national9.html 'New' CBD no fun for disabled Date: 05/06/99 By ADELE HORIN The City of Sydney's $200 million upgrade of the CBD is a major setback for people in wheelchairs, or with other mobility problems, according to disability groups. The kerbs are too high, the phone booths are the wrong height, many ramps are too steep, and the silver discs in the ramps are likely to be slippery but useless to the visually impaired who are supposed to benefit, the groups have alleged in complaints to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. The city council has already begun to undo some of the work. But it has dug its heels in on other issues. As far as the Physical Disability Council of NSW and People with Disabilities NSW are concerned, conciliation sessions at the commission with the council have broken down. "An opportunity comes maybe once every 50 years to improve physical access to the city," said Mr John Moxon, president of the Physical Disability Council. "In this case, the City of Sydney is turning the clock back." He said the council refused to listen to disability groups and went against the advice of its own access committee, and of a hired consultant. Mr Mark Relf, deputy chief executive of the Australian Quadriplegic Association, said when the council unveiled the first completed section near Railway Square: "We said, 'Oh, no - look what they've done." The new ramps, in some cases, were worse than the ones they replaced. Kerb heights and kerb slopes failed to comply with recognised national standards for access, and the lips at the bottom of the ramps were an obvious trip hazard, he said. An audit carried out by the Physical Disability Council showed more than half the new kerb ramps in the CBD were steeper than the Australian Standard specified, and some were twice as steep. "The slope of the ramp makes it virtually impossible for people using manual wheelchairs to get up or down, and the lip at the bottom made it dangerous," Mr Moxon said. As well, kerb heights did not conform to standards agreed to by the State and Federal transport ministers in a bid to make it easier for people in wheelchairs, elderly people, and people with prams to access new buses. The executive officer of People with Disabilities NSW, Mr Phillip French, said: "Sydney is hosting the Paralympics but we will have a CBD that is going to be substantially inaccessible to people in wheelchairs." However, a council spokesman said the council had addressed most of the problems raised, "short of ripping up George Street and starting again". He said the "vast majority" of kerb ramps complied with the Australian Standard of a 1:8 slope, and that contractors had been notified "to make sure future work complied". The slightly reduced kerb height was a "technical breach" that would make no difference to people's ability to access the new buses. Even so, the kerb height would be made to conform to the national standard in areas of work not yet completed. In addition, the lips on the ramps were being removed. And the discs, used to indicate ramps to people with visual impairment, were being pulled out and replaced with white stone. The acting Disability Commissioner, Mr Chris Sidoti, has informed People With Disabilities that in view of the breakdown in conciliation, he was of the "preliminary view" that the commission should hold a public inquiry into the matter. Access to kerbs a big challenge for small wheels At the corner of Harris Street and Broadway in the city, Mr Mark Relf, deputy chief executive of the Australian Quadriplegic Association, casts a bleak look at the new street work. "This corner has always been too steep," he said. "Now they've made it worse." The City of Sydney has dropped the kerb height below national standards, he said. This has made the pavement slope steeper than ever. Manoeuvring a wheelchair, especially a manual one, around this corner, or across the road has become more hazardous and more strenuous than it ought to be. In his electric wheelchair, Mr Relf could just manage. But for some people in wheelchairs, it will be difficult. Here the ramp slope measured 1:5 on Mr Relf's gradient measurer, considerably steeper than the national standard of 1:8. Manufacturers recommend against wheelchairs being used on such a steep slope, Mr Relf said. What also riles him is the council's failure to make the most of the repavement program to improve access. For example, a simple re-angling of pavement flagstones would have eliminated the 60mm step-up to some shops and restaurants, currently a barrier to wheelchair entry. In front of the Malaya restaurant in George Street the new lower level footpath has created a barrier to entry where there was none before. "We would be happy to put up with all the temporary barriers around the city right now," Mr Relf said, "if we knew the end result was a well-designed and accessible environment." - Adele Horin This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
