Most ATMs, bus stands in Goa not disabled-friendly: Audit

Panaji: A majority of the public bus stands, government websites and bank ATMs in Goa are not disabled-friendly says a seven-month-long survey and audit conducted by students of the Goa Institute of Management (GIM) in collaboration with CII.
Government websites, particularly those that deal with public utility services, do not meet the needs of persons with disabilities, says the survey that will be shared with the government for further deliberation and action.
“The elaborate audit also identified gaps, including lack of funds for training workshops, unfilled reserved seats in Industrial Training Institutes for persons with disabilities, and a lack of awareness among students with disabilities about career opportunities, leading to such individuals being relegated to back-end roles,” it says.
Conducted by the students of GIM who were mentored by professors V Padmanabhan, Mantasha Firoz, Arpita Amarnani and Kingshuk Sarkar, the study is part of the B-school’s ‘Give Goa’ initiative, which has been commissioned in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry and Young Indians (CII-YI).
“The ATM audit covered 100 randomly chosen cash-dispensing kiosks in rural and urban Goa. The findings indicate that faulty error messages or audio cues, lack of Braille-powered ATMs, improper ramp designs and complicated transactions were major issues,” said Padmanabhan.
It has recommended that each locality should have at least one fully disabled-friendly ATM.
According to the 2011 Census, two per cent of Goa’s population comprises persons with disabilities. GIM-CII said that addressing accessibility gaps in the public services sector is crucial to creating a more inclusive society with equal access to basic services.
Bus stands are crucial for mobility, particularly for the elderly or persons with disabilities from low-income groups. The audit studied 10 bus stands, including the busiest — KTC bus terminus in Panaji — and the Porvorim depot. It found that most bus stands lacked basic accessibility features due to poor construction and poor awareness of disability-related issues.
An audit of 50 government websites also showed that most were not user-friendly for persons with disabilities. The websites of the fire and emergency services and the river navigation department were the most unfriendly websites.
GIM-CII has also recommended that the websites of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation and the Goa Police need to be upgraded as it is difficult for people with physical or mental disabilities, and visual and hearing deficiencies to use these websites.