Make malls, offices, banks friendly for disabled

New Delhi: Make malls, offices, business centres, corporate headquarters, banks and ATMs disabled-friendly, the Centre has told the corporate sector and commerce chambers.

The department of empowerment of persons with disabilities (DEPwD) has asked the private sector to make spaces, especially those with heavy footfalls, disabled-friendly. Breaking down the complicated universal accessibility guidelines, DEPwD has given a 10-point todo list to the private sector players, especially private sector banks. This means adapting their office spaces with three major features outside and seven inside. These include accessing the buildings with a ramp of a specified gradient without any encumbrances, a certain height of double-bar side railing, wide approach doors to facilitate wheelchair access, a specified height of reception area, lifts with auditory signals announcing the floors, tactile flooring without breaks and accessible toilets with wide doors on each floor of the building.

Speaking to ET, DEPwD secretary Shakuntala Gamlin said: “We have had several interactions with FICCI and ASSOCHAM and others. We have educated them about the requirements under the law to make public spaces accessible. We have told them, especially banks, that the premises – rented or their own – need to be made accessible. Their headquarters, conference and business centres all have to be accessible.” Gamlin said the simple 10-point list has enabled the private sector to look at the exercise favourably.


One of the biggest challenges remains making ATMs accessible. Gamlin said, “There are challenges not in just accessing them but also in operating them.”