TOMSK, Sep 12 –
RIA Tomsk. Pupils of school No. 32 in
Tomsk have developed an interactive map showing buildings and institutions
equipped with ramps, as well as unobstructed routes for physically challenged
citizens, one of the authors of the project Nikita Melkov told RIA Tomsk.
According to
him, the idea for the project was born in 2019, and it was initiated by pupils
of school No. 32. At the moment the map is ready, it is being finalized by
Maksim Petlin and Viktor Vyazovchenko - also tenth-graders of school No. 32.
"Together
we are developing a website. It consists of a map, which occupies 80% (of the
computer screen) and a sidebar. This map has markers in those places that are
equipped with ramps. And when physically challenged people visit our website, they
can see how to reach those places and where they are located," Melkov
told.
At first,
schoolchildren searched on their own for places accessible to physically
challenged people in Tomsk. "We took cameras, went out on the streets,
looked for places that were equipped with ramps, took pictures of them, looked
at how accessible they were," said Melkov. - We studied special literature
and consulted with the All-Russian Society of the Disabled People. Later, when
the project began to gain momentum, we involved volunteer organizations in the
search for locations".
The young people
are planning that by July 2022, the website will have more than 300
accessibility points (currently there are about 50), 30 routes for
wheelchair-accessible people to get from one part of the city to another
(currently there are only five), and 30 specially equipped vehicles. In the
long term, the site could turn into a mobile application.
"We hope
that in the near future there will already be an app available on Google Play
and App Store for all kinds of mobile devices, any operating system, which one
can download and at the touch of a key already get access to all these
places," the agency's interlocutor added.