Attitudes are what have to change in order for accessibility to be achieved

There is a great deal of interest among the Russian and Baltic participants on the course in Universal Design that begun on Monday at the Nordic School of Public Health (NHV). The discussions during lectures are lively and questions posed many from participants representing various sectors and agencies.
– The problem is to change attitudes so that those working for public institutions accept that these should be accessible for all, rather than it being an issue of lack of funding, says Andrey Zonin, Director for the Institute for Cultural Programs in St. Petersburg.

The target group for the course in Universal Design, coordinated by Evastina Björk, is representatives from the Nordic Council of Ministers’ offices in the Baltic States and North-western Russia along with invited participants from a wide array of professional backgrounds in these regions. Found among the 25 participants are architects, planning agency representatives, engineers, rehabilitation professionals and politicians, along with a news team.

Universal Design is about accessibility for all regardless of age, ethnicity, level of education, disabilities etc. It is not only about physical environments such as buildings and outdoor environments but also about culture, education issues, technology and more.
Swedish architect Mai Almén, who has devoted her entire professional life to working with accessibility issues, was the first course lecturer on Monday. She is an expert on accessibility issues according to the Swedish Planning and Building Act.
– I work as a consultant with planning of physical environments in order to make them work for all human beings, thus also those who have some sort of disability. 

A matter of attitudes rather than cost
One of the Baltic participants wondered if it is costly to adapt old cultural structures. She speaks of major difficulties trying to cooperate with conservation agencies when it comes to these issues and is given the advice to keep the dialogue going in order to find platforms for cooperation.
– Sure, it costs money to rebuild cultural structures but money is not the main problem, states one of the Russian participants Andrey Zonin, Director for the Institute for Cultural Programs in St. Petersburg.
He explains that the obstacles he sees when it comes to building an accessible society are not so much about funding as they are about changing attitudes among public employees, not least those working at cultural institutions such as museums and libraries.
– The people who work there many times think that handicapped individuals do not need to come there at all and turn them away instead of helping them out. It can be a little easier to receive assistance when larger groups arrive, he says.
Some of the participants are from St. Petersburg, such as researcher Elena Pfau from the Department for Cooperation with Domestic and International Medical Establishments of the Public Health Care Committee of St Petersburg Government and Yulia Rybakova, who works at The International Centre for Social and Economic Research - Leontief Center. Rybakova works professionally with international questions and participated with great interest in the lecture given by Almén on Monday.
Almén brought up many aspects regarding how Swedish public agencies handle accessibility issues, such as rights to subsidies for rebuilding one’s car. She showed examples of blind individuals who use special aids which allow them to bring their children to day-care, the playground or outdoor bathing places that have been adapted etc. The audience asked a lot of questions regarding the examples of adaptations that are occurring right now in Sweden along with the benefits the Swedish government grants when it comes to disability aids.

News team from Kaliningrad

– The law states that wheelchairs and walkers should be able to go everywhere. All doors that have closing functions should also have automatic opening functions, Almén said as an example.
Included in the intense course programme is a guided tour around Gothenburg, aimed at showing good and poor examples and along with a visit at MedicHus, which manages special housing and meeting places for the elderly.
One of the course participants is also a news editor at independent TV and radio broadcaster Kaskad in Kaliningrad. She is joined by a cameraman and will produce a news segment upon returning back to Kaliningrad. The segment will illustrate how Sweden and Norway work with accessibility issues and will provide examples from NHV, city life and accessibility planning in Gothenburg and Oslo.
The course continues in Oslo March 25-26 and in St. Petersburg May 10-12. It is arranged in cooperation with the Norwegian Directorate of Health in Oslo (the Delta Centre). The course is one of the planned activities following a series of seminars given under the theme “Universal Design as a National Strategy”, organized by NHV and the Nordic Cooperation on Disability (NHS), today known as the Nordic Centre for Welfare and Social Issues (NVC), in the Baltics during 2007.