Accessibility and Safety Audits

Samarthyam team continues to work towards making public spaces and transportation system safe and easy to access by girls and women with disabilities. Partnership and collaboration of Samarthyam with Government, UN agencies, INGOs, NGOs and DPOs have helped in creating awareness on making ‘safe cities’ through audits and campaigns.

Since 1994, Samarthyam has been promoting universal accessibility with the mission to make Incredible India: Inclusive India. Accessibility audits are the baseline assessments undertaken by Samarthyam to make built environment accessible for all. Samarthyam has access audited more than 8500 sites/ buildings.

Walkability Audits

Walkability Audits assess, advocate and create awareness on seamless accessible travel chain in pedestrian infrastructure. To work with the stake holders, service providers and road owning agencies to implement and monitor required designs standards and elements to make walkability safe, dignified and comfortable for “all” pedestrians and public transport users irrespective of their gender, age, disability.

Accessible India Campaign, 2015-ongoing

Samarthyam is empanelled Access Auditor with Government of India and is Member, Steering Committee of Accessible India Campaign to promote its objective & targets. We have also supported the government to develop the Strategy Paper of the campaign with indicators & timeline.

Accessible India Campaign is a nationwide flagship campaign of Govt. of India (Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment) for achieving universal accessibility for all citizens including the elderly & persons with disabilities. The campaign focuses on Built Environment, Public Transportation and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Samarthyam has conducted access audits in 16 cities of India covering 847 building and transport terminuses under the campaign. Access audits in urban, semi-urban and rural areas are underway. Technical capacity building workshops for Central Public Works Department, State Public Works Department and Contractors, etc. are also being orgnaised to ensure that there is in-house technical expertise to audit and assess the built environment.

Stadiums and Sports Complexes, 2010-2020

Samarthyam has been proactively engaged in access auditing the sports and games complexes in the country to ensure stadiums and sports complexes are universally accessible for all. With Sports Authority of India, 13 stadiums and sports complexes are access audited by Samarthyam, while implementation is undertaken by CPWD on fast track.

During the Commonwealth Games, 2010 in Delhi, as Advisor to the CWG Organizing Committee on accessibility for para-athletes, Samarthyam access audited all stadium complexes and residential apartments to ensure that these are fully accessible for all.

Access Audits in partnership with Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, Government of India, 2010

Samarthyam has access audited around 275 prime buildings of CPWD. Group of Ministers derived an action plan to make Delhi accessible. Nodal Ministry identified for this was Ministry of Urban Development. Samarthyam signed an agreement in 2010 with Ministry of Urban Development to access audit 50 key Central government buildings in Delhi. These include prime buildings such as Prime Minister’s office, President House, Supreme Court, National Museum, Shastri Bhawan, Vigyan Bhawan etc. As a result of this partnership, all 50 buildings have been implemented with accessibility recommendations provided by Samarthyam and stands as models of universal accessibility to spread the message of “Access for All”.

Access audits of educational institutions, 2005-2020

• Access audits of more than 800 schools in 16 state of India with funding support of UNICEF, Government of India, State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Odisha and West Bengal, VSO and DFID under International Partnership Agreement programme (IPAP) and CBM
• Access audits of Centre of Excellence, which led to evidence based advocacy on making IITs and IIMs accessible for persons with disabilities. The institutes access audited are as follows:
  • Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
  • Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
  • Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar
  • Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
  • Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad
• Access audits of prime Universities of India:
  • Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) campus, New Delhi
  • University of Delhi
  • University of Rajasthan
  • University of Garhwal at Tehri, Pauri, Garhwal and Srinagar, Uttrakhand
  • University of Hyderabad, EFLU
  • SLIET, Engineering University Punjab