Babruisk: Disabled Persons’ Day events to be held in inaccessible building (photo)

A charity concert scheduled for December 3 to mark the United Nations' International Day of Persons with Disabilities will once again be held at Babruisk’s Palace of Arts. Meanwhile, this building is a real impregnable fortress for wheelchair users. They will have to overcome a number of steps to reach the entrance, and even more steps to get to the second floor where the auditorium is located.

So attending the events in the Palace of Arts for wheelchair persons is only possible with the help of a volunteer, even for those having most up-to-date electric wheelchairs.

“The volunteer should first drag you over these steps into the building, and then also to the second floor. Therefore, few dare to go there,” says local wheelchair user Natallia Pinkouskaya, remembreing her impressions from last year's visit to the Palace of Arts.

This year, the organizers promised that the charity concert and an exhibition would be held on the first floor of the Palace of Arts. That is, the volunteers will have to drag the disabled persons through the steps only half the distance. But still they will have to.

“The community aid center of Pershamaiski district is expected to provide us with volunteers, so I can attend the concert,” says Natallia Pinkouskaya. “But a friend of mine from Leninski district is unlikely to go there, as she was advised to seek a volunteer herslef, as their community aid center “does not provide” volunteers. So, it appears to be a holiday only for the disabled who can walk. Then maybe wheelchairs should be expelled from the centers at all, as there are too many problems with them?”