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Description
According to the World Health Organization, people with disabilities face numerous barriers in accessing services. These barriers are generated by inadequate legislation, policies and strategies; lack of service provision; problems with the provision of services; lack of awareness and understanding of disability; negative attitudes and discrimination; lack of accessibility; inadequate financing; lack of participation in decisions that directly affect their lives, etc. There are specific barriers regarding the expression of opinions by people with disabilities. (WHO global disability action plan 2014–2021)
The project addresses a number of these needs by providing wheelchair users with appropriate services, available locally and supporting them in self-advocacy in relation to public authorities. The project activities will include mobility and health services provision to wheelchair users using new, locally unavailable equipment, training beneficiaries on advocacy and supporting them in carrying out various actions to promote their skills and of advocacy, as well as the improvement of the MotiActiv and Panoul de Bord mobile applications with advocacy functions on disability issues.
The direct beneficiaries of the project are wheelchair users from Romania will benefit from the mobility and health services in 15 locations in Romania, also receiving training on advocacy and support to carry out advocacy actions.
The applicant has over 25 years'' expertise in providing services for wheelchair users through a number of appropriate means, including the MotiActiv application. The partner has since 2017 the application Panoul de Bord, that allows citizens to send notifications with legal value to the authorities, and which will also include functions that will allow people to notify disability issues, through this project.
Summary of project results
The challenges the project aimed to address were the numerous barriers in accessing services and participating in the community life that people with disabilities in Romania have to face.
An important project result in addressing these needs was the creation of a diversified set of practical and innovative tools. The set of tools included the Guide on wheelchair users’ rights, Panoul de Bord and MotiActiv mobile applications, and the comic book ”Sam and Sarah. You can do more than you think!” which is promoting the inclusion of children with disabilities in community. Over 130 complaints and proposals have been submitted to the authorities, through Panoul de Bord App, and the first concrete results have been obtained. In order to reach a larger audience, a variety of awareness raising activities have been organised, such as 6 wheelchair sports events, 4 seminars in schools, the Abilities Matters photo exhibition presented in 15 locations in Bucharest and across the country, and the publication of 6 portraits of wheelchair users active in the family and in the community. Another important project result was the creation of a model of services, unique in the country, in caravan format, in order to bring services closer to those who need them.
The tools created and described above were used to inform wheelchair users about their rights and ways of accessing them, and also to initiate advocacy activities and promote the abilities of people with disabilities among the general public.
The complaints and proposals submited to the authorities have met the following results: at local level accessibility in some public spaces has been improved, and at national level some legislative provisions on access to wheelchairs through the National Health Insurance House have been modified.
The awareness activities had the role of promoting the abilities of people with disabilities and an active lifestyle in the wheelchair.
245 people with disabilities in 15 counties benefitted from the services included in the health caravans. The caravans had an immediate impact in improving the mobility and health of the participants, by offering services based on modern technology, such as the BodiTrak pressure testing system.