Mobility Access Project

"A City for Everyone" Access Project Addresses Barriers

The Access Project that concluded in FY2005 addresses architectural and attitudinal barriers to access through projects that range from installing ramps at key public facilities to a full advocacy campaign. All of these projects have built upon one another, contributing toward The Polus Center’s mission to encourage and support the full participation of people with disabilities in their communities. The goal of the project was to forge partnerships that maximize a disabled person’s potential for self-representation, to raise public consciousness, and to demonstrate the importance of inclusion.

Employment Training Opportunities

By providing mini grants, The Polus Center has partnered with persons who have disabilities in Nicaragua in order to create employment opportunities that are self-empowering and sustainable. Many of these projects have financially helped those who have been previously denied employment due to a disability. Demonstration projects have included a fishing cooperative, internet café, art school, gift shop, graphic design class, academic scholarships to the University of Leon, and computer classes.

Social Integration

Through the removal of social and physical barriers that have historically denied individuals with disabilities access to community life, The Polus Center, with the help of the Disability Leadership Center (DLC), has attempted to integrate those with disabilities into the social fabric of public life. The DLC serves as a network to a dozen local grassroots disability organizations in Nicaragua. It helps to leverage the capacity of local organizations that aim to provide medical, academic, and legal services to persons with disabilities. The DLC includes people with disabilities in its governance and ultimately helps to impact public policy at both the local and national level.

Physical Access

Using a method of universal design, an architectural concept that aims to simplify products, communication, and the built environment so that they may be used by as many people as possible at little or no extra cost, architects put together a plan to make Leon’s downtown accessible to persons with disabilities. The first four corners which were ramped allowed access to a pharmacy, the Disability Leadership Center, the Ben Linder Internet Café, and the University of Leon. The Mayor’s Office donated materials and labor and the electric company removed utility poles that were obstructing the sidewalk. Since then, a city park has been made accessible and other plans remain at various stages of execution.

History of the Access Project

In 2001, the Polus Center and grassroots organizations representing persons with disabilities began, with the support of the Pan American Health Organization and USAID’s Leahy War Victims Fund, the "A City for Everyone" Access Project.
The mobility and social access project is a physical and social effort to provide the disabled community access to economic and social opportunities, overcome poverty, and enjoy full participation in community life. "A City for Everyone" addresses both the immediate need for physical access and the long-term aim of raising public awareness about the attitudinal barriers faced by people with disabilities. The goal of the project is to forge partnerships that maximize a disabled person's potential for self-representation, raise public consciousness, and to demonstrate the importance of inclusion to the whole of society. The project consists of two major stages:

• Improved social access through the elmination of architectural barriers in public spaces
• Public Awareness & Education Campaign

Issues of Mobility and Opportunity

Achieving access is challenging because it has both a physical and social component. Socially, access is most often regarded as a physical issue but with the loss of physical access comes a loss of social opportunity. Without physcial mobility, a person can quickly lose access to all social and economic opportunities which lead to financial, educational and political impoverishment.

The physical barriers involved in accessibility challenges are relatively easy to isolate and address. Social access is much harder to define and achieve. Attitudes, sterotypes, and misconceptions create invisible barriers that must be addressed for true social to become possible. Social access for people with disabilities begins with improving physical access to public space and ends with raising public consciousness about the disabled community and the issues they confront.

Consequently, "A City for Everyone" has generated multiple approaches to the challenge of overcoming barriers

• Universal Design Implementation
• Public Awareness & Education Campaign
• Model Coherency Planning Process
• Leon Future Search Conference

These endeavors have generated many educational and positive developments. For example:

Universal Design Workshop: Thirty-one participants from varying walks of Leon community and government attended a workshop on Universal Design, an architectural concept that aims to simplify products, communication, and the built environment so that it is usable by as many people as possible at little or no extra cost. Using the ideas generated by the community, architects put together a plan to make Leon’s downtown accessible. The first four corners, which allow access to a pharmacy, the Disability Leadership Center, the Ben Linder Internet Café, and the University of Leon was finished in December, 2003. The Mayor’s Office donated materials and labor and the electric company removed utility poles that were obstructing the sidewalk. Since then, a city park has been made accessible and other plans remain at various levels of execution. The project generated a great deal of interest and support in Nicaragua in the form of radio interviews, newspaper articles, and commitments to expand the project across the city and the country.

Public Awareness & Education Campaign: The Polus Center will supervise a public awareness and educational campaign through radio, television, newspaper and posters to inform the disability community and public at large about the Mobility and Social Access Project. The campaign focuses on the theme of inclusion and displaying positive images of people with disabilities. In addition, the concept of Universal design will be introduced to the community.

Model Coherency Planning Process: A Model Coherency Planning process was conducted in Leon, Nicaragua. Through a community planning processes that included 35 in-depth interviews with local residents with disabilities a list of priorities that identified the most pressing needs, immediate problems, and long-term goals was generated from which plans to address them were made. Findings were presented to important civil institutions and the media. A cross disability-alliance of Leon's disability organizations was formed with the task of building strategic partnerships between Leon's disabled citizens, government, and civil society.

Leon Future Search Conference: An intensive two-day "Future Search" conference was held in Suyapa, Leon. This conference brought together over thirty-five representatives from governmental agencies, disability advocacy organizations, and important civil institutions. Representatives included architects from Leon's Mayor's Office, Ministry of Construction, the University, police officers, hospital administration, media, disability organizations, the PanAmerican Health Organization, the Red Cross, and many other stakeholders. The gathering provided a unique opportunity for people disabilities to display their strengths, demonstrate their ability, and showcase their leadership skills while educating key members of the community and raising social consciousness.