TEHRAN — Tehran municipality has taken measures to make bus stops across the city more accessible for people with disabilities, councilor Majid Farahani said on Tuesday.

Last week in a note to Tehran Municipality the city council has urged the directorate for traffic and transport affairs to increase accessibility for the physically challenged people at the bus stops and the municipality saw to it, ISNA quoted Farahani as saying. 

Moreover the municipality has put bus stop sings in Braille for people with vision loss, he added. 

Making the city disability-friendly requires determination 

The new law on the rights of persons with disabilities has been approved on December 27, 2017, by the Majlis [Iranian parliament]. According to Hossein Nahvinejad, deputy director for Iran’s Welfare Organization rehabilitation affairs, the law will be fully implemented by the next Iranian calendar year starting on March 21, 2019. 

One of the articles of the law aims to create an environment in which people with disability can have an equal chance of accessing social facilities as normal people. People with multiple disabilities can use public transportation– including buses and subway – free of charge.

Head of Iran’s Welfare Organization Anoushirvan Mohseni-Bandpey said in mid-July that the government has allocated a total budget of 2 trillion rials (nearly $47 million) for implementing the law on rights of persons with disabilities.

But Nahvinejad said on Monday that in order for the law to go into effect fully the Welfare Organization require a budget of 120 trillion rials (nearly $2.8 billion).

Looking around the city it is clear the Tehran is not much disability-friendly and it’s already too late. This doesn’t solely concern one organization. There are number of responsible bodies which have to join hands in both allocating the necessary budget as well as developing necessary infrastructure to the city a better place for people who are already making a great effort to live a better life.

MQ/MG