STATE PROGRAM
to create a barrier-free living environment for physically weakened persons for 2011–2015
CHAPTER 1
GENERAL PROVISIONS
The State Program for the creation of a barrier-free living environment for physically impaired persons for 2011–2015 (hereinafter referred to as the State Program) was developed in accordance with the main directions of socio-economic development of the Republic of Belarus and in development of the State Program for a barrier-free living environment for physically weakened persons for 2007–2010, approved by Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated April 3, 2007 No. 424 (National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus, 2007, No. 83, 5/24995).
The state program is aimed at implementing the provisions of the laws of the Republic of Belarus dated November 11, 1991 “On social protection of people with disabilities in the Republic of Belarus” (Vedamastsi Vyarkhoonaga Saveta Respubliki Belarus, 1991, No. 34, Art. 611), dated July 5, 2004 “On architectural, urban planning and construction activities in Republic of Belarus" (National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus, 2004, No. 109, 2/1049) and dated July 23, 2008 "On the Prevention of Disability and Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons" (National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus, 2008, No. 184, 2/1519), as well as the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated June 21 2005 No. 673 “On approval of a set of additional measures to create a barrier-free environment for people with disabilities, ensuring their free access to public transport, places of study, work, and recreation” (National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus, 2005, No. 103, 5/16154).
The state program provides for an integrated approach to addressing the issues of eliminating natural, information, communication and architectural barriers that impede access to social and other infrastructure and the free movement of people with disabilities.
The customers and implementers of the State program are the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Architecture and Construction, the Ministry of Communications and Informatization, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, the State Committee for Standardization, the State Customs Committee, the Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus, regional executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee.
Customers of the State program:
establish indicators characterizing the implementation of the tasks of the State program;
carry out, within their competence, monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of the State program;
bear responsibility for the implementation of the State program, ensure the effective use of funds allocated for its implementation;
carry out state statistical reporting on the progress of implementation of the State program within the established time frame;
develop, if necessary, and submit to the customer - the coordinator of the State program, proposals for adjusting the activities of the State program.
The implementers of the State program, within the limits of their competence, annually submit to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection a report on the progress of implementation of the State program, including information on the implementation of activities, fulfillment of tasks and indicators, targeted use of funds, volumes of financing, assessment of the effectiveness, quality and timeliness of the State program.
CHAPTER 2
TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTIFICATION OF THE STATE PROGRAM
The main goals of the social policy of the Republic of Belarus are to ensure the growth of the level and quality of life of the population, the formation of a comprehensively developed person who determines the future of the nation.
Creating a barrier-free environment is one of the main tasks aimed at achieving these goals and affecting the interests of physically impaired persons. Physically weakened persons are persons who have difficulty moving independently, obtaining services, necessary information, orienting themselves in space, as well as disabled people, elderly citizens, persons with temporary or permanent health impairments, pregnant women, persons with children under 3 years of age, and other persons who have difficulty moving and (or) consuming services.
The Republic of Belarus is home to 9.5 million people, of which 2.4 million are age pensioners, 506.7 thousand disabled people, 306.7 thousand children under the age of 3, 122.1 thousand children under the age of 18 with special needs of psychophysical development. The share of this group of citizens is 35 percent of the total population.
Physically impaired people are often unable to lead full lives due to social and physical barriers that prevent them from fully participating in public life. Faced with such barriers, they withdraw into themselves, become passive, and lose faith in the possibility of achieving personal and professional well-being.
Creating for such persons an accessible living environment that allows them to fulfill the needs of life, move freely, use services and receive information is an important factor that increases their capacity and facilitates their integration into society. Such an environment includes social, engineering and transport infrastructure facilities, arranged in accordance with the requirements established by building codes and regulations, taking into account the needs of physically impaired persons, as well as all types of information transmitted to people with hearing or vision impairments.
As part of international cooperation, conditions are created in the republic that meet international standards for receiving foreign guests, including people with disabilities. This will facilitate the holding of various international sports, cultural and public events at the proper level.
To enable persons with disabilities and other categories of physically impaired persons to lead an independent life, appropriate measures are taken to ensure their access to the environment, transport, information and communications, including information and communication technologies and systems, as well as other facilities and services in urban and rural areas.
For these purposes, the republic has formed a set of urban planning and architectural and construction standards that establish requirements for the living environment of disabled and physically weakened persons when designing buildings and structures.
Preliminary results of the implementation of the State Program on a Barrier-Free Living Environment for Physically Weak Persons for 2007–2010 showed that the planned activities have been largely completed. Work to create a barrier-free environment, financed from the republican and local budgets and funds from implementing organizations, was carried out at 7,507 social infrastructure facilities.
This made it possible to increase the share of facilities adapted for access by disabled people and other categories of physically impaired persons from 19.9 percent in 2006 to 35 percent in 2009. By 2011, it is planned to increase the number of such facilities to 50 percent of the republican average.
At the same time, at present, the problems of integration of physically weakened persons into society have not been fully resolved.
In relation to some issues that are significant for such people (development of social infrastructure facilities, including historical heritage sites and architectural monuments commissioned earlier, free movement along the streets of populated areas and unimpeded access to social and transport infrastructure facilities, housing arrangement, equal access to various types of services with other citizens), additional measures are required.
To solve these problems it is necessary:
ensure interdepartmental interaction during the construction and commissioning of infrastructure facilities;
improve the quality of work and the pace of adaptation of public and residential buildings;
ensure the installation, operation and maintenance of stationary special lifting equipment for disabled people in residential buildings;
improve the system of transport services for people with disabilities;
ensure the development of special communication systems and information communication for people with hearing and visual impairments.
CHAPTER 3
GOAL AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STATE PROGRAM
The goal of the State program is to create an accessible living environment for physically weakened persons for their full participation in the life of society, the implementation of civil, economic, political and other rights provided for by the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Belarus.
To achieve this goal, the following tasks are expected to be solved:
the formation of legal, organizational and control mechanisms that ensure the creation of conditions for transforming the living environment into an accessible one for people with disabilities and other categories of physically impaired persons;
increasing the share of social and other infrastructure facilities adapted for access by disabled people and other categories of physically weakened persons;
improvement of the transport service system, including adaptation of places of movement for disabled people and other categories of physically weakened persons;
development of communication and information systems for people with hearing and visual impairments.
CHAPTER 4
EVENTS OF THE STATE PROGRAM
In order to solve the problems of the State Program, it is planned to implement measures to create a barrier-free living environment for physically weakened persons in accordance with the Appendix, including:
improvement of regulatory legal acts in terms of adapting the living environment to the needs of physically weakened persons, including through the development and implementation of technical regulatory legal acts aimed at creating a barrier-free environment for people with disabilities and other categories of physically weakened persons;
development of production of special equipment and devices that ensure accessibility of the living environment for people with disabilities, taking into account their needs;
retraining and advanced training of specialists on the issues of adapting various infrastructure facilities for access by physically weakened persons;
holding scientific and practical conferences and seminars on transforming the living environment into accessible for persons with disabilities;
carrying out work to create a barrier-free environment at 5,032 social and other infrastructure facilities, adapting the existing housing stock, including reconstruction and repairs to ensure unimpeded access to and inside the premises;
replenishment of the transport fleet with low-floor passenger transport, including those equipped with special equipment for transporting wheelchair users;
equipping the Minsk metro with elements of a barrier-free environment;
organizing parking spaces for vehicles with the identification sign “Disabled” near social infrastructure facilities, indicated by appropriate road signs and roadway markings;
installation of road signs, traffic lights with synchronous sound signals;
adaptation of stop zones for public ground passenger transport;
adaptation of above-ground and underground pedestrian crossings for use by citizens in wheelchairs and people with visual impairments;
implementation of a pilot project to equip socially significant urban infrastructure facilities and public transport with voice electronic informants in the cities of Brest and Pinsk with the subsequent implementation of experience in other regions of the republic;
increasing the number of broadcast news, educational, and entertainment television programs accompanied by crawling subtitles;
ensuring the availability of audio information for people with visual impairments;
ensuring duplication of audio information using visual means (ticker, written information for people with hearing impairment);
providing information assistance to people with hearing (vision) impairments at train stations, airports, and other public places;
adaptation of ATMs to the needs of visually impaired users;
publication of books in the “School Library” series in Braille for visually impaired children.
Particular attention will be paid to creating a barrier-free environment for people with disabilities and other categories of physically weakened persons at objects of republican ownership, regions and the city of Minsk, banks, sanatorium-resort and health-improving organizations.
The implementation of the State Program provides for the participation of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Sports and Tourism, the National Center for Legislation and Legal Research, the National Bank, the National State Television and Radio Company, the Republican Center for Health Improvement and Sanatorium-Resort Treatment of the Population, the Belarusian Republican Union of Consumer Societies, the open joint-stock companies Savings Bank Belarusbank, Belvnesheconombank, Belarusian Bank for Development and Reconstruction “Belinvestbank”, “Belpromstroybank”, closed joint-stock company VTB Bank (Belarus), public associations of disabled people.
CHAPTER 6
EXPECTED RESULTS FROM THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STATE PROGRAM
The implementation of the State Program will allow:
make changes and additions to 5 regulatory legal acts, develop 6 state standards, retrain 20 specialists, hold 2 scientific and practical conferences and seminars;
increase the proportion of facilities that take into account the requirements of a barrier-free environment to 70 percent throughout the republic;
increase the number of low-floor passenger transport, including those equipped with special equipment for transporting wheelchair users;
increase the number of television programs with running subtitles.
The implementation of the State program will contribute to:
creating conditions that provide physically weakened persons with equal opportunities with all citizens in using social infrastructure, information and communications;
improving the quality of life of people with disabilities and increasing the level of comfort in the living environment of all citizens;
increasing social activity and independence of physically weakened persons, including disabled people, the comprehensive development of their personality and active participation in the life of society;
improving public awareness about the problems of people with disabilities and the possibilities for solving them, developing a positive attitude in society towards people with disabilities and their problems.
Paragraphs of the current National Security Code 3.03.02-97 “Streets and roads of cities, towns and rural settlements” when carrying out work on the repair, reconstruction and construction of the road network and inside the courtyard areas of cities and towns, which are most often carried out in violation of:
4.4.8. At the intersection of pedestrian paths with the roadway of streets, roads and main passages, the height of the side stones of the roadway must be at least 0.05 m, and narrowing of the roadway is not allowed. Intersections (conjugations) of pedestrian paths with secondary driveways and entrances to houses should be carried out at the same level, highlighting them through the use of sidewalk coverings and pedestrian paths in material and color, contrasting with the roadway.
4.4.10. Longitudinal slopes of sidewalks should be taken no more than 60% over a section with a maximum slope of no more than 300 m. For larger slopes or longer sections, horizontal sections with a length of at least 5 m or stairs with a number of steps of at least 3 should be provided, which should be duplicated by ramps with a slope of no more than 100% and a length of no more than 12 m.
The transverse slope of sidewalks should be 10-15%, and in cramped conditions and during reconstruction - 25%.
4.4.11. Longitudinal slopes of sidewalks and pedestrian paths, which are intended for use by persons using wheelchairs and physically weakened persons, should be taken no more than 40%, transverse slope - 10%. The height of the steps should be no more than 0.12 m and the same throughout the staircase, the width should be no less than 0.36 m. The riser is arranged vertically, the tread - horizontally, with a rough surface without protrusions above the riser. Stairs and ramps should be equipped on both sides with railings with two handrails located at a height of 0.9 m and 07 m. The length of the handrails should be at least 0.3 m greater than the length of the ramp or flight of stairs on each side. The handrails should have a diameter of 0.03-0.05 m or a rectangular section with a thickness of no more than 0.04 m, the ends of the handrails should bend down, and when they are arranged in pairs, connect to each other.
5.2.6. At the intersections of pedestrian paths, sidewalks and bicycle paths with guide islands and central dividing strips, the side stone should be installed with a height of no more than 0.05 m. Safety islands at pedestrian crossings should be provided with a coating that contrasts in material and color with the roadway.
5.5.4. Stairs of pedestrian tunnels must be duplicated with ramps. The upper platform of the ramp should be raised 0.08-0.12 m above the sidewalk level with an entrance ramp at least 2 m long.