TIRANA, July 20 – Thousands of people with disabilities in Albania are facing tough life due to lack of access to appropriate infrastructure and services, even in downtown Tirana not to mention remote towns and villages.
Thirty-three-year-old Suela, a wheelchair user in Tirana, says moving through Tirana is a tough job.
“Sidewalks are the biggest difficulty of moving through Tirana. They make independent movement impossible, and even if you have somebody accompanying you, it takes a lot of stamina,” she says.
“I haven’t taken the bus in years. Even in those few cases of buses with access to wheelchair ramp, the buses are overcrowded and ticket controllers are not helpful in opening the ramp,” she adds.
Although Albania has a legal framework guaranteeing accessibility for people with disabilities to cities, transport and information, its implementation remains problematic, according to a study supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Albania.
Crossroads in Tirana do not meet the criteria for access to people with disabilities. There are difficulties even when these people are accompanied while their independent movement is impossible. The problem starts with sidewalks which are not wide enough and paved with the right materials. Movement for blind people is impossible because there are no pedestrian crossings with tactile paving, says the report by Together Albania Foundation.
People with disabilities also face difficulty in access to public buildings because of no access to wheelchair ramps, while the visually impaired lack information in the Braille alphabet.
Public transport is one of the main issues facing Tirana people with disabilities because of lack of access to wheelchair ramps and acoustic wayfinding.
Anisa Proda, a visually impaired young woman who works for the ministry of social affairs, says walking alone through Tirana is impossible and very dangerous.
“There are no acoustic signals so that we can hear the traffic lights when pedestrians can cross the street. Independent movement is impossible but also dangerous. It is not easy either if you have somebody accompanying you,” she says.
Asked if she can go out for a walk unaccompanied, Proda says “No, because it’s dangerous and there are no training courses in town to teach how to walk independently, train me to get to know the area and avoid barriers.”
Thirty-three-year-old Florian Rojba who speaks sign language, says his main concern is lack of written information in public buildings and services.
Asked if he ever attends cultural events, Florian say “I’d like to go to the theater or the opera house a lot. I have never been there. Being hearing impaired and especially lack of a sign language interpreter to communicate the material in my language prevents me from attending these events. In the meantime, in museums if there is even written information that makes it a lot easier for me to visit it,” he says.
Lack of appropriate infrastructure prevent people with disabilities from employment, participation in sports, social and cultural events and the opportunity to have a family like everybody else, says the report.
Experts recommend applying rules to eliminate architecture barriers in public infrastructure interventions and that the Tirana Municipality takes measures to adapt existing facilities for people with disabilities.
Frank Hantke, the director of Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Albania, says Tirana although impressive with its buildings and liveliness, poses lots of barriers to people with disabilities.
“When I first came to Tirana, like many visitors coming for the first time I was impressed by fast pace constructions, the many beautiful facades, big cars and liveliness. But I soon noticed this is only a piece of life in Tirana and in addition a German drama says ‘What’s in darkness, cannot be seen.’ When I carefully walked the city’s streets, I noticed the many barriers those parents pushing baby strollers have to go through, on the sidewalks where there are parked cars and which are sometimes are 30 to 40 cm high, there is no safety when you cross from one side of the street to the other and much more. And this is much tougher for the more needy people,” Hantke says in the report.
“In addition, even the new buildings, bridges or streets have not taken into consideration these difficulties. (Personally, for me, even the new footbridges in the highway to the airport continue to remain a clear and bad example. The look very elegant, but are very outdated and non-social because they separate many people who are not able to cross these kinds of “bridges”!) All schools, businesses, public buildings roads and even parks are open to only those people who are able to cross barriers, they require maximum attention or can be crossed by car. But how many people cannot do this?” asks Hantke.
An estimated 75,000 people with disabilities live in Albania, but their number is believed to be much higher as not everybody receives social assistance, says the local Beyond Borders organization.
“In Albania, being a person with physical disability means a condition without hope associated with discrimination. Prejudices against disabled people are still strong and discriminating. Moreover, most of the disabled people are poor and have poor access to health service,” says Beyond Borders.
