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table of contents - home page - text-only home page Progress in Access & Technology in Brazil Following stories are translated from Brazil's leading disability newspaper, Superação, published by the founding Independent Living Center of Brazil, CVI-Rio Rua Marquês of São Vicente, 225 Parking of PUC - Gávea ZIP CODE 22451-041 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil (cvirj@cvi.puc-rio.br) First Guide to Accessible Sites in Rio de Janeiro On December 18, 2000 the Center of Independent Living of Rio de Janeiro presented to the City Hall of Rio de Janeiro the Guide to Full Citizenship: Accessibility in Downtown Rio de Janeiro. For two months public buildings, places of leisure, hotels and bus terminals, amongst others, were examined for their accessibility. The guide was created through the proposal of the law municipal number 2661 of June 30, 1998. The guide, elaborated by CVI-Rio, was sponsored and supervised by Funlar and The Municipal Secretariat of Social Development. Architect Verônica Camisão, this project's coordinator and responsible for the accessibility department of CVI-Rio, noted that the downtown area was the most critical area to study. Besides being the cultural and financial center of Rio, the area contains a great number of public institutions and historical buildings. "In this first version, the analyzed establishments were chosen through several meetings with people with disabilities users in general, seeking information about the accessibility conditions to services widely used, or buildings that especially representative in the central area of the city. There are other important places, that in a later stage, will be inserted in the listing'. The evaluation of the buildings was carried out by a team composed of architectural technicians and people with disabilities. All the places were visited at length, and the facilities and services offered at each site were checked for accessibility. There are subsequent modifications planned for the next edition. User collaboration will be valuable, and Verônica Camisão ask for observations to be forwarded to the Accessibility department of CVI-Rio. Innovations in Telephony for Hearing Impaired Persons Telecom is presenting one more innovation in the area of the telephony for hearing impaired Brazilians. Starting from January, the company will make available intermediation through the Internet of phone calls for hearing impaired users. This will be the first time that this type of service will be offered in Brazil. Today, such a service for the hearing impaired works through the number 1402, but it requires a special implement that is very costly. With this new Internet-based service, any hearing impaired person with access to the Internet can make phone calls through the intermediation center located at the Call Center of Goiânia. "This new service will democratize telephony, because to use the existing service the person with disability needs an implement of high cost and that is not widely distributed in Brazil Telecom's area. Due to the Internet being disseminated so widely, the use of connections takes a considerable jump forward," says Bruno Rufino do Vale, of the marketing department of Telecom. How Does 1402 Service Work? Currently Telecom Brazil has special instruments for the hearing impaired available, distributed throughout several public places. Through these instruments hearing disabled people can communicate without problems with anybody. The service works 24 hours a day, every day of the week. Through this service it is possible to make a connection between an ordinary telephone and a telephone for the hearing impaired equipped with a special indicative visor where it is possible to read the messages in addition to a keyboard to send messages. The connection doesn't result in an addition to the price of the common call. When calling the 1402 number at the phone headquarters, an attendant will read the typed messages and pass them on to the listener. The answers will be typed back by the attendant and the hearing-impaired user can read them off on their monitor. For more information visit www.brasiltelecom.net.br/surdos. Accessibility in Brazil Now Has the Force of Law On December 19, 2000 the President of the Republic, Fernando Henrique Cardoso sanctioned the Law n§ 10.098, that defines the general norms and the basic criteria to guarantee to all the people with disabilities or reduced mobility, accessibility in a wider sense. A wider accessibility means in the sense of actual physical geography, constructions, urban equipments, transportation and communications. Accordiing to Ismaelita Maria Alves of Lima, Coordinator of the National Secretariat for Integration of People with Disability - CORDE, a great achievement of this Law is the creation of the National Program of Accessibility that will demand a permanent involvement of the Secretariat and all the Ministries in the federal ambit, in rendering the rights articulated in this Law. Background Concerned with the issue of accessibility, supporting projects and programs dealing with this issue, CORDE organized in 1995 a critical Technical Meeting with the objective of regulating articles 227, paragraph 2§, and 244 of the Federal Constitution that guarantee the unrestricted access of all citizens to public buildings and urban equipments. At the invitation of CORDE, CVI-Rio collaborated in the project, mainly in the related issues of architecture and urbanization. That whole process led to the creation of the bill n§ 4767/98, in the House of Representatives, and n§ 34/99 in the Senate, earning the unrestricted support of the National Congress. When approved without amendments in the two legislative houses, Law n§ 10.098 was thus created. During the two years of negotiations of the Project, CORDE had permanent accompaniment of the National Congress Committees, supplying the information and technical support whenever they were requested. Commenting on the new law, the president of CVI-Rio, Lilia Pinto Martins, pointed out the importance of treating the subject of the accessibility with the force of law,'This action certainly will bring to Brazil a new conception of urban space and the society that we live in, in a much more inclusive way." In addition, the law approaches the accessibility issue within broader parameters, comprising communication, transportation, urban space and architecture. The bill is progress in the recognition of the'right to the city" for all its users, stated architect Verônica Camisão, Coordinator of Accessibility of CVI-Rio. During the signing ceremony in the Palacio do Planalto, the President of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, pointed out that the country is now evolving appropriate treatment to people with disabilities, reminding us all that,'actually, in the biological evolutionary process all of us have, in certain moments, less capacity of action than what we have had in other moments.' Details of the Law Chapter I GENERAL DISPOSITIONS Art. 1 - This Law establishes general norms and basic criteria for the promotion of accessibility for people with disabilities or with reduced mobility by the suppression of barriers and of obstacles in roads and public spaces, urban areas, the construction and reform of buildings and in the means of transportation and of communication. Art. 2 - For the purpose of this Law the following definitions are established: 1. Accessibility: possibility and condition of reaching for use, with safety and autonomy, of spaces, furniture and urban equipment, construction, transportation and communication systems for people with disabilities or with reduced mobility; 2. barriers: any impediment or obstacle that limits access, the freedom of movement and safe circulation, as classified in:
4. element of urbanization: any component of urbanization construction, such as pavement materials, sanitation, plumbing for sewers, electricity distribution, public illumination, provisioning and the distribution of water, landscaping and all that materialize the indications of urban planning; 5. urban furniture: the existent group of objects in public roads and spaces, inserted or added to the elements of the urbanization or construction, so that their modification or transfer does not provoke substantial alterations to these elements, such as traffic lights, signs, phone booths, public sources, garbage cans, tents, marquees, kiosks and any other objects of similar nature; 6. technical aid: any element that facilitates the personal autonomy or that facilitates access and the use of physical objects. Chapter II ELEMENTS OF THE URBANIZATION Chapter III DRAWING AND LOCATION OF THE URBAN Chapter IV ACCESSIBILITY IN THE PUBLIC BUILDINGS OR IN THOSE OF COLLECTIVE USE Chapter V ACCESSIBILITY OF PRIVATE BUILDINGS Chapter VI ACCESSIBILITY IN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION VEHICLES Chapter VII ACCESSIBILITY IN COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS AND PUBLIC SIGNS Chapter VIII DISPOSITIONS ABOUT TECHNICAL AID Chapter IX MEASURES OF THE ELIMINATION OF BARRIERS Chapter X FINAL DISPOSITIONS Civil Action Regarding Inaccessible Transport Instituted against Six Brazilian States In December, in commemoration of the International Day of Disabled Persons, and of the 52 years of the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights, independent living centers of six Brazilian states instituted a Public Civil action to guarantee accessible interstate public transportation. The action will be headed by the Centers of Independent Living and Attorney of Law Associations of each state, CVI Brazil and entities that support the struggle within each state. According to lawyer Ana Paula Crossara, responsible for the action, this will be a way to struggle for acquired rights by law. The Constitution of 1988 already determined that all the people are equal by law. Public interstate transportation is made available by the Federal Government, but accessibility for people with disabilities was not foreseen, which again justifies this action of search for full citizenship and respect of constitutional principals", affirms Ana Paula Crossara. According to officials of the six entities, this action is critically important in the ongoing struggle for the right of people with disabilities to study, to move about, to work, that is, the right of any citizen to move as he/she pleases. "So that all can visualize the need of that action, imagine traveling today on a bus, being disabled, and using a wheelchair. It is impossible' Ana Paula says. "Actions like this will be of fundamental importance for people with disabilities to have their rights guaranteed. In 1995, through CVI-Rio we were successful in an action against Metro-Rio, where the favorable sentence made the accessibility of 9 stations possible. ' affirmed Geraldo Nogueira, Juridical Director of CVI-Brazil. The states included in this action are Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul and São Paulo. table of contents - home page - text-only home page |