Parks to be made accessible to people with disabilities

Parks to be made accessible to people with disabilities

Staff Reporter

Coles Park in the city will be the first to install ramps

# 11 other centrally located parks to become disabled-friendly
# Project taken up at the initiative of Kilikili

BANGALORE: Merry-go-rounds and slides in the parks in the city will henceforth be accessible to children with disabilities.

The Coles Park in Fraser Town will be the first to have ramps helping persons with disabilities to play like any others.

According to Chief Horticultural Officer of Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, V. Narayanaswamy, 11 other centrally located parks are to follow suit. These include Basavanagudi's M.N. Krishna Rao Park, Silver Jubilee Park opposite Town Hall, Mahatma Gandhi Park on M.G. Road and Malleswaram's Bhashyam Park.

The Office of Commissioner for Persons with Disability in association with two U.S.-based non-governmental organisations Pro Vision Asia and Joni and Friends, are providing the material and helping in setting up the disabled-friendly infrastructure at Coles Park.

The project was taken up at the initiative of Kilikili, a network of parents of children with disabilities. At present, most parks and playgrounds in the city are not accessible to persons with disabilities.

The disabled friendly infrastructure includes merry-go-rounds that accommodate wheel chairs; equipment that make sounds for the visually impaired; slides that have railings and ramps; smooth pathways to help the visually impaired from stumbling and to allow easy movement of wheelchairs.