The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits discrimination and ensures equal opportunity and access for persons with disabilities. The Federal Transit Administration works to ensure nondiscriminatory transportation to enhance the social and economic quality of life for all Americans. The FTA Office of Civil Rights is responsible for civil rights compliance and monitoring to ensure non-discriminatory provision of transit services.
This is what a disabled Iranian could never imagine. I think we have sort of ADA in our law book but who cares? Almost nothing in Iran cities (like sidewalks, stairs, cross walks, transit and etc) are desgined to serve disabled people. I congratulate Americans for their great civil rights. This is what every nation should learn. What about your city/country? Do you have ADA?
5 comments:
Some of the big cities have facilities for handicapped persons, but not all cities do, even in the USA. In Paris, some large Metro stops have elevators, but not all. If one goes to suburban towns around Paris, it’s pretty hard to find sidewalks where handicapped persons can go with their wheel chairs, and I would say that France is not a 3rd world country. It’s going to be a long road for people with disabilities to be recognized everywhere. For example, how many museums, in large cities in any country, have signs mark in the Braille alphabet for people who are blind? And frankly, I don’t think it has anything to do with following Islam or not, I think that it has to do with apathy. In the USA, many cities have no buses to elevate wheel chairs, nor other facilities for the handicapped. I remember reading how some handicapped persons in Georgia had to go to court, and the old court house had no elevators, so they could not go, and then the persons had been fined as a no show!
It has been a long, hard fight to get these rights for people with disabilities. It will be so in other countries as well. When I was a kid, these privileges were not available. It wasn't so long ago. Brave people fought for these benefits. And I think it is hard, maybe even frightening, for people to fight for things like this right now in Iran.
Every once in a while it seems we need to be reminded that many things that we take for granted are harder to come by elsewhere. Good post.
We certainly do. From the Disability Rights home page of the Australian Human Rights Commission - "The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 makes disability discrimination unlawful and aims to promote equal opportunity and access for people with disabilities."
There is a long way to go to improve things here for the disabled. But what I do see is that many buses have a ramp available for a wheelchair and the front right of the urban buses can be lowered closer to the ground if the driver sees a passenger who needs that.
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