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KILSBY AUSTRALIA | transport policy, planning and management advice |
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Access For All 11 October 2000 saw a milestone in transport history in Australia. This was the day when the Commonwealth Government endorsed the draft accessibility standards for public transport, and in due course compliance will become mandatory. Update March 2001 Nevertheless HREOC (the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission) has indicated that the draft standards will be the criteria by which it assesses any public transport cases brought before it, so they have acquired a quasi-legal status after all. The rest of the comments below were written in October 2000 and still appear relevant. Clearly compliance with standards will have to be phased in over time. Industry, government and representatives of people with disabilities had previously accepted that "in due course" meant complete compliance within 20 years. This was implicit in the title of Angus Downie's 1994 publication (AGPS), Target 2015, A Vision for the Future : Access to transport for all Australians. At the time of publication Angus was a member of the National Accessible Transport Committee and it was expected that Commonwealth adoption of the draft standards would happen in 1995, leading to full accessibility of public transport (ie compliance with the standards) by 2015. It has taken five years longer than expected to secure this adoption, and though the compliance timescale remains at 20 years for buses (ie by 2020), it has been extended to 2030 for trains and trams. Also, the Commonwealth Government has indicated that it will amend the Disability Discrimination Act to allow the Human Rights and Equal Opportunties Commission to grant exemptions from the standards. What are we trying to do? Only to ensure that Australian citizens are not excluded from using public facilities (public transport) by inappropriate physical designs. In a civilised society this should be able to be taken for granted, and so it will be in Australia - by 2030. The enthusiasm from Canberra can be judged from Senator Ron Boswell's address to open the Australian Bus and Coach Association Conference in 2000. At the time he was the Parliametary Secretary to the Minister of Transport and Regional Development. Reviewing the Federal Government's actions in the transport sphere, he said of the (then) draft accessibility standards : Compliance will be a complete legal defence to a complaint under the Act on issues covered by the standards .." So, not, we'll reduce discrimination and achieve a more equitable society. Not even, you'll widen your potential market. Only, this will cover your backsides, boys. There are all sorts of disabilities. There is no "them" and "us" - it's all "us". There is a comprehensive review of how a number of "us", who don't consider ourselves as disabled, can be excluded from the public transport system, elsewhere on this site. What sort of society do we want to be ? THIS IS IMPORTANT. If you find this an exaggeration, read the reflections of Russian journalist Vitali Vitaliev on life as a fresh emigrant(Vitali's Australia, 1991), and in particular his essay Judge a society by how it cares for the disabled... The concept to grasp is "universal design". Don't wait to be told what to do by Federal Government - they are leading from behind on this. Addendum June 2001 "Universal design" is a concept well understood by most architects and designers. It involves ensuring that products and environments can be used by the greatest number of people, to the greatest extent possible, without any need for adaptation. The seven principles of universal design are said to be:
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