Accessibility audit.

FOR many structural and societal reasons, navigating public spaces in Pakistan is difficult and stressful - sometimes virtually impossible - for anyone who isn't an able-bodied adult man. For people with disabilities in particular, environmental and policy barriers create an entire infrastructure of exclusion which obstructs their active participation in society. On Wednesday, while deliberating on implementation of the ICT Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2020, the Senate Committee on Human Rights heard from a number of PWDs on just some of the ways in which their daily lived experiences are fraught with discrimination and even danger. This need not be so, but it requires a fundamental shift in how policies are made, ensuring that public development and services are truly inclusive. To this end, the committee discussed issues of access in two key service sectors: banking and aviation.

Here too, despite the State Bank working for years to ensure bank branches are wheelchair accessible and their ATMs usable for people with sensory disabilities, it is clear that the work lags far behind. In aviation, PIA has resorted to offering passengers with disabilities...