Invisible Wall Confronting 10,000 Visually Impaired Residents of Golestan

Gorgan, Golestan: For 10,000 visually impaired residents, urban life remains tied to directives, credit excuses and box-ticking projects.

Ambassador of Arjan Provinces - Fahime Ajaklou: World White Cane Day is not just a calendar occasion for the bright-hearted community of Golestan province; Rather, it is an opportunity to review deferred promises, decayed approvals and invisible walls between the disabled and the urban environment. However, in a province with 10,000 visually impaired people, 1,700 of whom live in absolute darkness, urban life is still tied to the dos and don'ts of circulars, credit excuses, and homework-resolving projects, while experts emphasize that the accessibility of a city does not require large budgets. Rather, it depends on changing the managers' beliefs, executive will and standardization without compliments.

3% employment law for disabled people on paper

People with disabilities face many problems and challenges, and one of the most important challenges for these people is employment.

The representative of Iran Blind Association in Golestan, referring to Roshandlan's daily deprivations, said in a conversation with Mehr reporter: "The explicit provision of the law that allocates a 3% quota for the employment of disabled people in government bodies is simply violated and our elite youth, senior experts and PhDs are unemployed.

Criticizing Roshandelan's monthly pension, Nouri said: Can a monthly pension of two million tomans compensate for the exorbitant cost of living and treatment of this group?

He added: In the era of electronic banking, why shouldn't our ATMs be self-explanatory? A blind person has to hand over his secret bank card and password to unknown passers-by for a money transfer or receiving a balance.

Referring to the slogan of this year's World White Cane Day, the representative of Golestan Blind Association reminded: They say see the blind more; Our clear answer to the administrators is this: the blind community clearly sees and observes all your inactions, dirty directives and show approvals; Now it's your turn to mutually recognize the enlightened ones, their human dignity, their immense capacities and their legal rights.

Urban adaptation in Golestan, the victim of demonstration sessions

The lack of adaptation of roads and urban spaces has limited the possibility of the presence of people with disabilities. An expert on the adaptation of urban spaces stated that the Law on the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has a clause that deals with the requirement of adaptation and accessibility for special classes.

Reza Shah Hosseini added: In the past years, Golestan was able to achieve the top ranks in the country with the help of the senior managers of the province. But in the last few years, this cooperation has become very weak, now the meetings of the provincial adaptation headquarters are held irregularly, only at the level of general managers, and its output is nothing but the repetition of paper and implemented approvals.

He warned about the failure of the institutions and noted: the legislator has set a penalty for disobeying the properization; However, the lack of serious demands of the welfare organization and the allowances of the disabled has left room for widespread violations in urban planning and public construction projects in Golestan.

The expert on adapting urban spaces continued: the current actions are very few, demonstrative and do-it-yourself, and inappropriate urban projects show that executive agents and supervisors are not even familiar with the alphabet of accessibility standards.

Shah Hosseini stated that adaptation does not only belong to the blind, adding: the elderly, pregnant women, children and temporarily injured people also need it. If we keep chanting the slogan of an elderly and child-friendly city, we should know that the basic infrastructure of all these slogans is practical accessibility.

85% of vision disorders can be prevented

Golestan is one of the provinces with a high prevalence of disability, but the bright spot of this record is in the front line of medical prevention.

The consultant of the Golestan General Welfare Department stated that the majority of vision and hearing disabilities are caused by old age or neglect of timely treatment and are less congenital, in a conversation with Mehr reporter, he stated that more than 85 percent of vision disorders can be completely prevented and treated with simple measures such as correction of refractive errors, treatment of lazy eye, and routine surgeries.

Kamal Salmani added: Continuous welfare screenings throughout the year have prevented the blindness of at least 300 children in the province every year, and centers such as "Rasha" specialized center in Gorgan support children under 15 years of age with the aim of stopping the progression of visual impairments.

He continued: "Despite these treatment successes, we are facing a serious statistical reality. Among the 60,000 people with disabilities in Golestan, 10,000 cases are related to vision disorders, and 1,700 of them live with total blindness."

The advisor of the Golestan General Welfare Department regarding the support of this department for the disabled in the province said: Although Golestan's welfare support is provided from the provision of university tuition up to the doctorate level and the direct allocation of credits for the purchase of equipment such as white canes, walkers and hearing aids worth 35 to 40 million by presenting invoices or pre-invoices to the accounts of the clients, but as soon as the disabled leave the door, the real world imposes its challenges.

Salmani said that one of the most important challenges of people with disabilities is the lack of adaptation and added: the main obstacle is not credit; Rather, it is the lack of belief among managers to consider disability as their problem. When we go to city managers and agencies for adaptation, the first answer is that we don't have money, but the reality is that adaptation often does not require heavy credit, but requires the kind of order and managerial belief.

He continued: If the elevator key is engraved with braille, there is no additional cost to the manufacturer compared to the English or normal button. Floor announcement speakers are installed in all elevators and only need to be activated, on the other hand, we have advanced seconds counter signs at all intersections; Equipping the same intersection with a small audio speaker with a bird's voice to announce whether the light is green or red, what burden does it place on the municipality? If this is possible in at least 5 or 6 high-traffic and main roads of Gorgan city, Roshandel can cross the street with dignity without needing the help of others.

Doubling the quota of self-employment facilities for the disabled in Golestan

Referring to the government's new approach in handing over the employment quota of the disabled to the welfare organization, the consultant of the Golestan General Welfare Department stated: This year, for the first time by the government's decision, the 3% employment quota has been centrally assigned to the welfare organization instead of being given to each executive body separately, so that after evaluation, qualified people can be introduced directly to the government agencies.

Emphasizing on holding a centralized recruitment test in December, Salmani added: the call for registration in the system has been activated and candidates who have university degrees such as associate, bachelor and higher should complete their registration as soon as possible so that the process of introducing them to the institutions will be implemented by the end of the year.

Stating that the total capacity of more than 2,600 people in the country has been considered for this process, he pointed out that although Golestan province ranks 15th in the country in terms of population, it is one of the most numerous provinces in the country in terms of the prevalence of disabilities and covered people. Therefore, our demand is to allocate a quota according to the prevalence rate of disability in the province, so that we can meet a significant part of the job needs of people with disabilities.

Emphasizing that government employment is not the only way of empowerment, the advisor of the Golestan General Welfare Department pointed to other means of job creation and said: For the target community, the loan facility for job creation with a repayment of five to seven years has been planned for the holders of technical and professional skills certificates. In addition, in case employers attract people who want to benefit, in addition to special employer facilities, the payment of the employer's insurance premium to the social security organization as well as the efficiency compensation subsidy will be provided and reimbursed by welfare.

Salmani said: Last year, the quota of employment facilities in the province was 957 people, and this year, with the follow-up and cooperation of the governor and the assembly of representatives, this capacity was doubled and increased to about two thousand people, and we hope that applicants with skills can benefit from this capacity.

Passing from fulfilling the duty to honoring humanity

The daily encounter of 10,000 visually impaired people in Golestan with unsafe roads, silent ATMs, and employment barriers is a clear testimony to the fact that the biggest obstacle of the disabled community is not physical limitations, but the intellectual barrier in the urban and administrative planning system.

The focus of the employment quota on welfare and the doubling of employment facilities, although they are promising steps, but as long as an enlightened person is forced to rely on strangers for his most basic citizenship rights, from crossing safely at intersections to maintaining the confidentiality of his bank account, the cycle of empowerment will remain sterile. slow to respond; Because the blind people of Golestan are not looking for the promise, they are fully aware of the performance of managers who will one day be responsible for the rights of this group.