Fatima Muhammad
JEDDAH — Licenses will not be issued to establishments not providing facilities for the disabled people, Jeddah Municipality announced on Wednesday.
The municipality will further prevent construction companies from obtaining a license for getting electricity if they do not adhere to these regulations. The facilities provided should ease the entrance to the establishment as well as moving around inside the buildings.
Nasir Mutib, assistant to the mayor for regional municipalities, noted that they have issued regulations that establishments should adhere to and they include providing suitable facilities for disabled people.
This, he added, is applied both on commercial and administrative buildings as well as hotels, apartment buildings and resorts. Such regulations, he added, are explained in a manual to guide in providing a suitable construction environment.
“No services or licenses are provided unless these regulations are met,” said Mutib.
The municipality has given 60 days to the already existing establishments to equip their buildings with the needed facilities. Alternatively they could be penalized.
Among the issued regulations is that all establishments must provide a service office with qualified individuals.
Buildings must also have suitable corridors, elevators, signs and provide wheelchairs inside restaurants and mosques as well and providing needed facilities in toilets.
A disabled person, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, noted that they have been calling for the implementation of decisions to ease their mobility.
He noted that there is a decision that obliges establishments including public institutions to provide facilities for disabled people.
This decision, he explained, has been issued some 35 years ago yet has not been fully implemented.
