(English) HRCSL trains Disability Access Audit Teams
Sri Lanka has ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2016 and is obliged to ensure upholding of Human Rights and protection of persons with disabilities. In addition, the Constitution of Sri Lanka guarantees equal protection for all persons under the law. However, they are often not considered in need assessments and thus experiencing environmental, cultural and attitude barriers in accessing essential services.
In order to protect and promote the rights of persons with disabilities, including the provision of reasonable accommodation, the HRCSL has taken the lead to set up district-wise disability access audit teams to conduct disability access audits in collaboration with the JURE project under the UNDP and UNICEF, funded by the European Union. Disability access audits, involves a comprehensive inspection and assessment of various aspects related to accessibility. In establishing these disability access audit teams, the HRCSL aims to conduct district-wise disability access audit trainings to create awareness of the rights of persons with disabilities.
In these programmes, teams were formed to conduct disability access audits in 25 districts and in 9 provinces. Each group consists of people with different types of disability such as persons with physical, visual disabilities and hearing impairments as well as government officials representing District Secretariat Offices, Urban Development Authority, Provincial Engineering Departments, Department of Building, Department of Local Government etc. The experienced resource persons who are all disabled and offered a lived user experience as part of the process. This is important as it captures information that more traditional audits do not.
Our main goal is to identify existing disability access facilities in government institutions through district audits and take the first step in enhancing infrastructure needs, improving overall accessibility and supporting the protection of rights of disabled persons. With the knowledge and training provided by the Accessibility Audit Training Programmes, our audit teams have conducted audits in 18 districts covering 9 provinces so far.