Unlimited attention to limited abilities

The provision of comfortable living conditions for limited mobility people was not limited to the year 2009 — “The Year of Equal Opportunities”, it grew into the whole strategy of improvement of the quality of life through 2020. At present more than 1.2 million of disabled people live in Moscow, more than 15 thousand of them are visually impaired and blind, more than 26 thousand of them have pathological diseases of musculoskeletal system, 6.5 thousand- are deaf and hearing-impaired, more than 5 thousand are ICP invalids, 27 thousand are disabled children.

The Government of Moscow has planned to reach the European level of creating a barrier-free environment for the disabled by 2012. 7.3 thousand administrative buildings were equipped accordingly for people with disabilities, more than 480 station elevating platforms were constructed in apartment houses, 86 wheelchair people received flats from the government. Traffic lights with audio visual output were installed for the visually impaired.

In the year 2009 that was announced “The Year of Equal Opportunities” municipal authority bought 238 low floor buses, 63 low floor trolley buses. “Social taxi”, the service of individual transport for the disabled received more than 137 thousand requests for individual transportations. In accordance with the instructions of the Moscow City Mayor, elevating platforms for the disabled have been installed in new buildings since 2007. It is important however that activity limited people will be able to use them by themselves or in the last resort with the help of an operator. It appears to be quite difficult to install such platforms in old houses, but the solution has been found — elevating platforms could be remotely controlled by a specially trained operator. 150 platforms will be constructed in addition to 608 platforms during the overhaul repairs in apartment houses in 2010.

The Moscow City Transportation and Communication Department provides traffic lights with electric information devices, which help to recognize the traffic signal. Moreover, the Moscow City Transportation and Communication Department has bought 600 stops-pavillions, equipped with information boards, specially adjusted to meet the needs of the disabled.

63 ramps from the pavement to the drive way are to be adjusted to meet the needs of the disabled in 2010: the ramps to metro stations Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya, Filevskaya, Sokolnicheskaya lines and to monorail roads. Special elevators have already been constructed at several metro stations. An experiment was conducted at the stations “Polezhaevskaya” and “Botanichesky Sad” — special contrasting pavement texture that does not slide was laid on the steps.

The Government of Moscow together with the Moscow metro are searching for new ways to adjust the life of the disabled to urban life, which is a challenging task — the overwhelming majority of city venues have been built without regard to the special needs of various categories of citizens for decades, today’s aim is to consider the needs of each person.

One of the major problems of people with disabilities is to find a job. To ensure that a person with special needs seeking a job, and an employer with an appropriate vacancy meet, the government of Moscow organizes two municipal annual employment fairs — they are designed for all categories of the disabled. Mini employment fairs are organized for separate groups of the disabled to facilitate job hunting.

Employment centers often have difficulties in finding a suitable vacancy for the disabled, that is why it is necessary to seek employers first, and offer vacancies only after that. The staff of the employment centers and other intermediaries do their utmost to ensure that the people stay abreast of their activities. The Department of Labour and Employment of Moscow also pays profound attention to the employment of the disabled. A call center in the 5th Donskoy proezd Street is about to open in September, 2010 — more than 1.6 thousand of visually impaired and blind people are looking forward to working there. The call center in the Ogorodny proezd Street is operating already — 825 sight-impaired people are working there, they accept orders for delivery of goods to people. The third similar call-center will open in spring 2011. Despite the expensive equipment of working places for the disabled, the Department of Labour and Employment of Moscow considers this program to be economically sound.

The Employment Assistance Department for the disabled in the central district of Moscow works officially within the territory of the Central Administrative District of Moscow, however it is ready to render services all over the city. The variety of vacancies is really huge — for example the companies, specializing in crafts offer hearing impaired people jobs of manual assembling of packages for New Year presents and perfume. The Employment Assistance Department compiles the data bank of companies that are ready to hire people with physical disabilities; recruitment is performed in accordance with the individual program of rehabilitation for a separate person with disabilities, specialists are willing to control the process if required.

It is highly important to assist the employer to get rid of the prejudices concerning the disabled employees and accept job-seekers just as “an employee disabled in one way but with all other abilities”. Moscow Labour and Employment Department held a forum “Flexible Forms of Employment” on July 29, 2010. It is necessary to develop such a form of employment as outworking in Moscow and not only for the disabled but also for the parents and fiduciaries who take care of the disabled children. It is also essential to teach them rehabilitation methods. Moscow employment services are quite aware that the number of jobs with flexible arrangements is not enough at the moment, and it is necessary to work towards the extension of the number of such workplaces.

A regional non-governmental organization of the disabled “Perspektiva” does a lot for the disabled in the city. The employing companies who offer the disabled workplaces are widely different — from individual entrepreneurs to international companies ranking among world leaders. The vacancies are also various — from the unqualified domestic labour to the work of a department manager (bookkeepers, economists, teachers, agents etc.). In 2009 1,190 disabled people turned to this organization, 390 of them got the job. 483 people came to the organization from January to July of 2010 and 190 of them found jobs.

The disabled are offered jobs in large shopping centers, permanent partners of the non-governmental organization “Perspektiva” equip working places specially for hearing-impaired people. The shop “Auchan” was the first to offer the disabled cooperation, the shop “Mosmart” can also show a good example of successful cooperation, it has even employed a sign language interpreter on a permanent basis so that it will be easier for the disabled employees to work. At present the store chain “Familiya” has become an active employer.