Most industrial nations of the world pay lip service to providing safe handicap accessibility to the physically challenged. The United States passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) way back in 1990, and its primary goal was to make it illegal to discriminate against the handicapped. Title III of the statute deals directly with public accommodation — wheelchair ramps, elevators, and bathrooms.
But the cold, hard reality is that the ADA is at best an afterthought and it’s still really hard for someone with a disability to get around.
When I worked for the Mayor of the City of Annapolis in 2000, I spent an enlightening day inspecting Main Street with some disabled advocates in wheelchairs who showed me countless impediments that prevented them from safely navigating the sidewalks, and this was after we had just spent millions to upgrade the street and sidewalks. I discovered that it only takes one spot that blocks travel, like a sidewalk without a curb cut, to render the entire street off limits to someone in a wheelchair.
A few years later I went to work as the the trails guy for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and I was shocked to see that the Department’s snazzy website had no information about what trails in each of our parks were handicap accessible or even where someone could park to offload a wheelchair.
The problem is that the ADA is implemented, for the most part, by people who are doing just fine. And they have no idea what someone who is disabled might need in order to enjoy life like the rest of us.
The Japanese take handicap access to a whole new level. It is ingrained in every aspect of their public infrastructure.
The most obvious example would be the sidewalks. Running down the middle of every sidewalk is a yellow strip about two-feet wide. It is textured with various bumps or strips. These corrugated tiles make it easier for people to feel changes in patterns and textures which signal to them something like a curb or a turn.
According to a blogger named Ana Weaver, who is an expert in Japanese sidewalks, “This type of textured paving is known as truncated domes and detectible warning pavers, and are a part of tactile paving (meaning: paving that can be felt). It helps the visually impaired detect when they are about to leave the sidewalk and enter the street.”
But the Japanese don’t stop there. The yellow strips have different patterns that send a specific message to the blind. That’s why many people call them “braille pavers”.
Offset dots positioned in diagonal lines — which are used in the Washington Metro — indicate a train track or other ledge ahead.
Oblong or lozenge-shaped bumps indicate that you’re approaching the tracks of a street trolley or other street-level transportation. So, these shaped-tiles help keep visually impaired people from wandering off platforms and sidewalks when using public transportation.
Stripes that run across a path signal steps or other trip hazards ahead, like a staircase.
Stripes that follow a path indicate a safe route.
Imagine what all of this costs to install and maintain!
But the wildest example of handicap accessibility I saw was at Osaka Castle, Osaka’s most popular tourist attraction, visited by millions each year, and designated by the national government as a “Historic Site”.
I was walking around the gargantuan white and golden, five-story castle, snapping photos from all possible angles when I came upon what looked like a green, glass siege engine attached to the west wall. At first, I couldn’t figure out what the hell it was. And then it hit me. It was an elevator for the handicapped. To say the elevator altered the view and historic integrity of the structure, one of Japan’s finest, would be an understatement. Imagine Edinburgh Castle with an elevator attached to its side, or the Capital Dome in Washington, or Windsor Palace. I certainly can’t.
But the Japanese come at the issue of handicap accessibility from a completely different perspective. They believe that everything is for everybody. And you do whatever it takes to make that happen. Osaka Castle isn’t just for those who can walk up steps.
I applaud the Japanese for their commitment not only to the principle of making public amenities accessible to those with disabilities, but to the practice. And the whole wide world should sit up and take notice because we can all do better.
