Back to Index

Accessibility to Harare CBD
Nyasha Madzingira PhD
Extracted from the magazine of the National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped (NASCOH) – October 2004

83% of the buildings in Harare are inaccessible to people with disabilities. This was revealed by a study commissioned by the National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped. The objectives of the study were to physically check on the buildings in Harare’s Central Business District (CBD) to find out how accessible they are to people living with disabilities (physically and visually impaired), list the buildings by name, street and the services provided. It was also to find out how accessible information is to people with disabilities and to come up with recommendations to assist NASCOH in its lobbying strategies and to come up with a policy paper for presentation to Parliamentarians.

Covering the areas bordered by Fifth Street, Kaguvi Street, Kenneth Kaunda and Herbert Chitepo Avenues in Harare a critical method of assessing the real issues on the ground was done. Data was also collected by conducting in-depth interviews with disabled persons, officers from relevant government ministries, officials from selected institutions and associations that deal with disabled persons, the media and all identified stakeholders.

The study revealed that some buildings do have ramps with rails, but many do not have compliance to the gradient level stipulated by the City of Harare because most of these ramps are very steep. There are also no signs in most buildings to indicate where the disabled entrances, lifts or toilets are located and on most of the buildings the doors to the offices or toilets are very heavy or the handles are too high. People in wheelchairs have difficulties in accessing most of the offices which are very small and congested, whilst the visually impaired also encounter problems in accessing most of the buildings because they do not have guiding rails. There is also no recorded voice to assist the visually impaired in elevators and they are also too narrow for the use of wheelchairs. Mobility of the disabled people from their areas of residents to and from town is very difficult. This is so because of unplanned hawking activities on the pavements, uneven and /or steep ramps on pavements and other barriers encountered.

Accessibility to and availability of services was found to be the major hindrance to people with disabilities. It was found out that there is no driving school in Harare with automatic motor vehicles fitted with hand controls to train the physically challenged. Orthopaedic appliances for people living with different forms of disability are very expensive and beyond the reach of many. The Banks are difficult to access due to lack of ramps, the counters are too high from a wheelchair and those on crutches have to endure long queues as the able bodied. Automated teller machines have no ramps and the cubicles are too small to accommodate wheelchairs.

There is also a general lack of awareness on the need for facilities that are user friendly to the disabled. Most people interviewed indicated that it never crossed their minds that there was need for such facilities. Most information and educational material is not readily available for the visually impaired. It was also clear that there is limited access to training and employment opportunities for the disabled in Zimbabwe.

• Given this background the study made various recommendations, which included the following; 
• The Government should champion the improvement of accessibility for people living with disabilities by ensuring that they are treated equally in the provision of education and economic empowerment.
  
• The Government should ensure that its buildings are accessible to the disabled by guaranteeing that there are adequate ramps and wider ramps and elevators. It should also introduce subsidies for specialised products for the disabled to ensure their accessibility and affordability.
  
• The housing and construction sector, with serious enforcement from the Harare City Council should build houses with the disabled in mind and standard size escalators that can accommodate a wheelchair are preferable to high rise buildings.
• Accessibility should also be improved on the following facilities, telephone call boxes, automated teller machines and counters in banking halls, smothering of the pavements to allow for those on wheelchairs and most importantly allowing the access to information and improving the communication for the deaf and the visually impaired.
• There is also need to strengthen the advocacy campaigns to raise awareness and increasing the dissemination of information, education and communication to the general public and to people living with disabilities on the legal instruments that protect their rights.
• The government and non-governmental organisations should set up a specialised credit facility for people with disabilities to enable them to start their own self help projects and businesses.
• The Government should acquire buses for public transportation with adjustable ramps to improve mobility of the physically disable.

For the full copy of the detailed research findings visit our web site on the following address www.nascoh.org

Visit the NASCOH fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP