Dubbo’s gutters and footpaths need to be addressed to make Dubbo a disability-friendly city and end widespread fears, says Cody Jones.
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At the recent council meeting, a new policy was approved to have all council infrastructure upgraded to meet modern accessibility standards within the next four years.
Mr Jones said there were wide-spread issues which affected accessibility for disabled people in Dubbo.
“As a young person with a disability who uses a walking stick and wheelchair I want to be able to gain my independence in this city and yet at the moment I can’t walk down the main street of my own town without fear of falling, without fear of one of the gutters not being accessible for my wheelchair and being left sitting there with no way around,” Mr Jones said.
Dubbo was not the most accessible city, Mr Jones said, however, it also wasn’t the worst.
“We can make a lot of difference over the next four years with this motion,” he said.
As part of the move to make Dubbo a disability-friendly city, a Disability Inclusion Technical Panel will be formed comprised of councillors, council staff and disability advocates to identify the problem areas in need of an upgrade.
Councillor Stephen Lawrence said for a long time disabled people had been hidden away and treated as invisible.
“I think very often in the community the obstacles they face can be obscured to us and we don’t often see these things or see them from their perspective,” he said.
“In my view it would juts be an inspiration thing if the council of a regional city such as Dubbo showed that we don’t see those problems as invisible that we understand those problems people with disabilities face on a daily basis.”
Mayor Ben Shields said he had been on council since 1999 and in that time he had received ongoing complaints about the city’s accessibility, from the footpaths to the ramp gutters which are too steep.
“I have a real hope that in four years time we’ll be able to lay claim to be the regional city in NSW that has the best disability and inclusion facilities in Australia,” he said.