The lesser-known requirements for accessibility

IN the report submitted on Nov. 24, 2014 by the Philippines to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the status of the country's fulfilment of its obligations with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which the Philippines ratified on Sept. 25, 2007, it was stated in Paragraph 42 that:

"Auditing the accessibility of existing structures for public use is also a challenge that is being addressed by the State Party. The State Party, through the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), in its access audit, found out that in 2010, only 1,291 out of 6,285 monitored buildings were found to be accessibility compliant... That a total of P687,000,070.00 is needed to cover the cost for full compliance of audited buildings." From the report, one can see that much remains to be done to make the built environment genuinely accessible to persons with disabilities in the Philippines.