An Important Premise
Accessibility – the premise for exercising all rights; Each of us is unique and different! We all have the right to an accessible environment that allows us to live our lives under optimal conditions.
An accessible environment (social context) is the premise for exercising all fundamental human rights: the right to health, education, work; the right to culture, leisure, and recreational activities; the right to justice, free expression; the right to a personal life and to start a family; the right to participate in public and political life, etc.
When arranging any space, whether public or private, all the characteristics that make us unique must be considered and adapted according to needs, so that we all have equal opportunities because accessibility is the premise for exercising all fundamental rights.
Equal Opportunities
Accessibility – the premise for exercising all rights; You may wonder what accessibility, this phrase “equal opportunities,” refers to? Below are just a few situations that can help make things clearer.
Have you ever accessed a website where the text was written in a language you do not know and felt frustrated that you could not get the information you were looking for? That is the exact same feeling a blind person has when they cannot access the information they need online because it is in the form of images, or the site’s buttons are impossible to access with the application that transforms the button function into an audio description. For a blind person navigating online, graphic data (images, diagrams) are completely useless, and the only source of information is the text. That is why it is very important for a website to be accessible to anyone with visual impairments.
When we are pedestrians, we need to cross the street. To be safe, a pedestrian crossing is necessary. Have you ever not seen the crossing because it was worn out, or the traffic light was nonexistent or defective? How many risks did you take if you chose to cross only by looking? A person with disabilities is in a similar situation when the crossing is not marked with a surface different from the pavement, the traffic light has no sound signal, or the tactile map that helps with orientation does not exist. For the blind, the lack of these accessible means puts their lives at risk!
Elevator out of order! What feeling do you get when you see such a message on the elevator door? And if you also have luggage or shopping bags… you feel desperate. Such moments are occasional for a typical person, but for a person with mobility impairments, they are a constant source of stress. For them, even a simple step can be an extremely difficult obstacle to overcome. The ramp is the only solution for making these spaces accessible.
And the list can go on. We hope the above examples have helped you understand what accessibility means and that it is not a whim. Accessibility is a necessity!
