The Australian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, His Excellency Jeremy Bruer met Wayne Boyle of Disabled Access International at the Australian Embassy in Abu Dhabi to discuss the humanitarian consultancy services the company is providing.
The humanitarian consultancy services assist:
- The UAE community at all levels of the UAE's Government and the building design and construction industry in the fields of building design guidelines codes, building design and building construction, and
- Ensure that physical access and mobility is provided for disabled people within all buildings, facilities and places
The history of the UAE Disability Act (Federal Law No.29/2006) that became operational on 21 June 2007 was explained to the Australian Ambassador, with the principles to protect the rights of disabled people within the UAE which require all Architects, building designers, builders etc to:
a) Recognise the rights of disabled people, and
b) Ensure that disabled people have the same equality of access and mobility into and within the built environment as able bodied people. Disabled Access International’s humanitarian disability access and mobility consultancy services can be summarised as follows:
- Disability access and mobility project design advice to ensure compliance with disability access and mobility design guidelines.
- Assessing plans at the end of the project design process to ensure compliance with disability access and mobility design guidelines prior to lodgement of the building permit application.
- Accessibility Assessment Reports at the completion of the final design plans to certify compliance with disability access and mobility design guidelines for inclusion with building permit application documents.
- Certifying project design plans that comply with disability access and mobility design guidelines.
- Disability access and mobility audits of new building works during construction stages and at the end of building works to ensure compliance with disability access and mobility guidelines.
- Building audit inspection reports of new building work to certify the project’s compliance with disability access and mobility design guidelines, or identify details of non-complying building works that need to be corrected.
- Disability access and mobility audits of existing buildings and provide inspection reports and action plans for identified works needed to be carried out with priority timetables for works.
Disabled people have the same rights and privileges afforded to the able-bodied people within our community.
Wayne Boyle said, “As Australians with a history of tending to the needs of disabled people back home we fully support the UAE Federal Government’s social planning initiatives to protect the rights of disabled people and will assist with the building design and construction industry to ensure that all new building projects within the UAE will have the best international practice design guidelines to support the UAE Disability Act (Federal Law No.29/2006).
"Building designers, construction companies, building owners and managers must ensure that access and related facilities are provided for disabled people and ensure that the access and facilities are available and maintained at all times.”