Dubai to Have Disability-Friendly Parks by 2016

Dubai to Have Disability-Friendly Parks by 2016 A new initiative to create Disability-Friendly Parks has been announced by Dubai Municipality, to be completed by 2016. The municipality aims to make the emirate friendlier for people with disabilities. All parks built will have 20% of area accessible to people with blindness, wheelchairs, and other physical disabilities. The municipality will start working on the project by October. The estimated project completion time is two years.

Talking on the occasion, Director General of Dubai Municipality, Mr. Hussain Nasser Lootah said that the authority had already been working towards the needs of disabled people by focusing on the specification of buildings and other facilities in the past and now parks were next in line to meet population’s needs.

The parks will be created while keeping particular needs of the disabled visitors in perspective. Smooth floors will ensure they do not face any problems entering or exiting the parks. The parks will also have special games and rides for disabled children. Similarly, other facilities used by the disabled park visitors including restaurants and toilets will be as per their requirements. And more facilities will be added to cater to children with or without any disabilities.

This is being done in light of the “My City Is A Place For All� initiative, introduced by Sheikh Hamdan which will help transform Dubai into a city which is friendly for disabled people by 2020. Many of the parks in Dubai already facilitate disabled persons through different services including reserved parking space, free wheelchair service and convenient entry and exit.

Dubai Municipality has taken many steps in the past to facilitate customers and provide better customer experience for all. It recently introduced the floating wheelchairs service for disabled people going to the beaches and is also in the process of building smart city with air conditioning for pedestrians.