Do we need an International Year of the Disabled 2010?

I can remember it as a time when the issue of access was on the agenda. Governments around the world made promises to rectify the problem. Sadly, you could be forgiven if you thought not enough has happened. The SSH has covered the issue of lack of access at Redfern and Erskineville Stations. We published a very sad picture of a an 18-year-old man climbing up the stairs at Erko Station, dragging his wheelchair behind him. That was about three years ago and nothing has happened at either Redfern or Erskineville. What a shame. Access costs money and after that mini-budget there’s not much money for access at railway stations.

One East Sydney resident stated in an email seen by Fast News that “there is no handicapped access from East Sydney up to Oxford Street at Oxford Square. The $100,000+ stair upgrade was done last year and more stairs were put in front of what was then a medical centre, but is now empty. One would have thought a ramp would have been appropriate. The other side has a tree with protruding roots and two bollards, presumably to stop cars that could never fit there anyway.”

Perhaps we do need another International Year of the Disabled in 2010.

Source: South Sydney Herald December 2008 www.southsydneyherald.com.au