By Nangamso Mabindla
26 July 2007

IN a bid to be more disabled-friendly, the Buffalo City municipality has initiated a pilot project to improve access for disabled people to its buildings, clinics and other important services.

The project, which started in July, is being run in partnership with the Centre for Municipal Training and Advice (CMRA). CMRA Buffalo City HIV and Aids co-ordinator Funani Ntontela said that it was the result of a feasibility study conducted in April.

"The study discovered that disabled people found it difficult to access buildings. This includes municipal buildings. Once inside these buildings, we also discovered that disabled people found it difficult to access toilets and the staff in some clinics were not friendly to disabled people with HIV and Aids," Ntontela said.

Findings made in the study resulted in the CMRA and Buffalo City's special programmes unit embarking on a pilot project that aimed to improve the lives of the City's disabled residents. Funded by the centre, the project would look at three components - a database of disabled people, library awareness and making the City's clinics disabled-friendly.

"Under the database, we want to have brochures that show which of the city's buildings are disabled-friendly. We will then have signs to inform the disabled about these buildings. The brochures will also be distributed to deaf organisations," he said.

Speaking about the library awareness component of the project, Ntontela said that the intention was to encourage disabled people to reach for their dreams. "We will have exhibitions that show disabled success stories. We will also have speakers discussing different topics; these will range from blindness and deafness to other disabilities. These speakers will talk to communities and create awareness about these disabilities."

Inspirational success stories would be included in the exhibitions, like multiple Paralympics gold medalists Oscar Pretorious, Natalie du Toit and Zanele Situ.

"The third phase of the project will involve the City's clinics; we want to make these disabled-friendly. We want to have signs outside the clinics that will indicate whether that clinic is disabled-friendly or not. We would also like to work on the attitudes of nurses so that they treat the disabled like they treat able-bodied people," Ntontela said, adding that the pilot would end in December 2008.

Thereafter, the CMRA and the City would investigate whether it could be expanded to other City services.

Buffalo City clinics needed to be disabled-friendly by 2009. Looking ahead to November, Ntontela said the City had a number of initiatives planned for the month, which has been set aside to focus on disabled people, their needs and concerns.

"In November, we will be working in Mdantsane, [where] we already have a library for the blind, DeafSA Mdantsane and other initiatives. We will take our library exhibitions to the Mdantsane Library to create awareness. We are also intending to launch a Disability Strategy in November."

Other plans for the month included reviving the Disability Forum that was launched in 2005.