The Pancyprian Organisation for the Blind (POT) in a scathing statement has accused the municipality of Nicosia of exclusion and “whistling indifferently” while depriving a segment of its citizens of the fundamental human right to mobility, participation in demonstrations, and full inclusion in aspects of community and city life.
POT accused the municipality of kowtowing to the interests of the Eleftheria’s Square contractors who wanted immediate payment and, as a result, failing to keep a promise of the mayor himself to address project shortcomings found during a visit to the site together with POT representatives.
Among the design elements deemed as problematic, are deficiencies in application of national and international standards for dimensions and distances of equipment in public spaces; lighting specifications; colour and signaling; guides for the blind and visually impaired; pavement clutter; and, in central Nicosia and Eleftherias Square, obstacles and barriers to movement.
All of this makes the project utterly incompatible with the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, according to POT and parts of the design are outright dangerous, such as granite cubes with sharp corners placed along the pavements.
“These sharp granite obstacles, arbitrarily placed by the municipality to prevent parking, endanger the lives not only of the blind, or people with disabilities, but other unsuspecting pedestrians who have already been injured there, as recorded in comments on social media,” says the statement.
The outcome of the beleaguered Nicosia facelift is characterised by POT as “the direct opposite of the original plan and a blatant violation of the much-publicised sustainable mobility policies routinely implemented for decades in the capitals of other European countries.”
POT goes on to accuse the municipality of “fooling” the European Commission that the project meets the accessibility requirements provided for in the regulations on project funding from the EU, and in complete disregard for human dignity for the blind, sending the message that blind and visually impaired people are second-class citizens.
The statement concludes that even after intense reactions, those responsible refuse to officially cooperate with POT to apply the relevant EU regulations, remaining stuck in an outmoded paternalistic mindset of pity, charity and exclusion.
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