Accessible Chennai - Meetup Recap

[JohnPeter]

I have got the privilege to host an accessible meetup in Chennai as part of Worldwide Accessibility Walk (WAW)  for the annual International Day of Persons with Disability. 

DineshKumar Vijayakumar having experience in MAA ULA near Central railway station

We have started our meetup with a Special Ride on "MAA ULA"  - To support & Encourage the Bike taxi initiative taken by Differently abled. 

MAA means differently abled in Tamil it is "maatru thirunaaligal" ULA means taxi. It is fully run by the Handicaps and first in India. The benefits are per kilometers they charge Rupees 10 only ( day or night) but other taxi services charging more in the night and peak hours. MAA Taxi can go into narrow streets and can drop at your doorsteps. Woman drivers also there so safe for women. Above all, they are young, energetic and wanted to stand by themselves. Shortly they are also releasing a mobile app. We had a great time knowing and encouraging. 

The focus of this meetup is to know "How Accessible is Chennai Public transportation?" So we have covered

1. Local Train & Station ( Chennai Beach Station, Park Station, Guindy)

2. Outstation Trains & Station ( Chennai Central)

3. Metro Trains & Stations (Chennai Central, CMPT, Guindy, Airport)

4. Local & Outstation Bus & Station (CMPT)

5. Airport - (Domestic & International) 

We were able to discover the vast range of accessibilities

1. Braille Sign boards for visually Impaired 

Reserved Seats for Disabled

2. Tactile Paving for Visually Impaired 

3. Audio announcement for Visually Impaired & Illiterate 

4. Wheelchair Parking

 

5. Wheelchair Accessible Entrance / Ramp 

6. Wheelchair accessible Lift

7. Wheelchair Accessible Toilet 

8. Baby stroller accessible 

9. Life/ Escalator / Walkalator / Travelator 

10.  Transgender/ Third Sex / Transexual  Accessible Toilet 

CMPT Bus stand

11. Baby Feeding Room 

12. Stretcher, Battery car,  Free Drinking water,  Ambulance & First Aids etc

It was a great experience in discovering how Accessible is Chennai Public transportation, we have discovered that the recent public transportations like Metro have all the accessibility enabled but the oldest transportation like Local electric train and station need to install disabled-friendly environment, especially subways and over bridges. 

We as a local guide had a wonderful time seeing our city transportation in a new perspective. We as a local guide community had a great time knowing each other.  Thank you  WAW, Google Team and our participants for this wonderful opportunity. 

 

 Participants: Packirisamy Saravanakanth  Mohan Rajan, Sametha (Daugther of  Mohan), Lambert Winston, DineshKumar Vijayakumar, John Peter 

With regards,

John Peter 

Photo Album: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOmNDpUBi4KdIAQu3vhi3iRD0pqefieQVMxcuEB3vpBTlzaAglFNLojKAzGOC5p...

[JohnPeter]

@Atsukot, @EmekaUlor, 

[RadieN]

Hello @JohnPeter,

Thank you very much for creating this meet-up and providing recap! These events are beneficial for the community and I hope to see even more of them here.

[LuaPL]

@JohnPeter

Great job and beautiful presentation.

I'm glad to see more Local Guides join in this topic.

Ahead!

[EmekaUlor]

@JohnPeter this is such a great news to know there's this level of accessibility in Chennai. WAW! @PriyankaU needs to see this.

I havent.seen an accessible transport operators like MAA, this is new and should be replicated. 

Thank you Peter for hosting #WAW meetup,.you have shared some important and new information.

Keep it up! 

[TravellerG]

@JohnPeter @EmekaUlor  @Saravanakanth and all, thanks for your great mission and for sharing this  - good luck . 

[TravellerG]

@EmekaUlor

Thanks for your response and involvement  

Regards 

[PriyankaU]

@JohnPeter Amazing recap. And great work done by Chennai Local Guides.

@EmekaUlor Chennai is the state capital of Tamil Nadu, it's a big city with all the modern amenities. 

[IrrPavlova]

Amazing recap, @JohnPeter. You gathered a really helpful collection. Thank you for sharing! Do you have any idea what is the percent of people with accessibility issues in Chennai? 

[JohnPeter]

Thanks, dear @IrrPavlova, You means the population of the Disabled in Chennai.  It's a good question, as per my research there is no recent census has been taken.  

My finding: Nearly 25  million people in India as suffering from one or the other kind of disability (2.7 percentage of the total population), Tamilnadu 1.6 million and in Chennai nearly 1Lakh (Chennai (501 per 100 000) 2011 census.