Moscow streets to get friendlier for the disabled

Having found no money in the 2010’s budget to redevelop Moscow roads, the city authorities have redirected funds into the creation of a more enabling environment for people with special needs.

Despite 2009 being a “Year of Equal Opportunity” that was supposed to see massive redevelopment across Moscow, the life of 1.2 million disabled people in Moscow remains pretty much unworkable due to the city’s infrastructure.

Some places have already seen redevelopment – the curbs have been lowered at crosswalks to make it easier for wheelchair access, and yellow cobblestones have been put in to make it easier for the partially-sighted to sense where the crossing is.

However, lots of Moscow’s public places, universities and sports arenas are still pretty much inaccessible for the disabled. Even simple things, like going to an ATM machine, can become a monumental challenge due to some of Moscow’s pathways.

Last year the magazine Bolshoy Gorod, or Big City, launched an experiment to see how difficult it was to get around Moscow when you are disabled. During the experiment, healthy people had an opportunity to move in wheelchairs as if they were disabled. The results were hardly surprising.

“The first problem was the absence of any facilities for the movement of wheelchairs, like specialized passages. And, of course, the human attitude. People in Moscow are just not used to seeing lots of people in wheelchairs around the city,” Ekaterina Krongaus, deputy editor-in-chief of Bolshoy Gorod magazine, told RT.