Rehabilitation Of Handicapped

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31753, 9 August 1968, Page 15

Rehabilitation Of Handicapped

The Christchurch Co-ordinating Council for the Handicapped this week adopted a recommendation calling for the establishment of a rehabilitation centre which would be educationally directed towards the full independence of the handicapped.

The resolution was adopted by representatives of about 80 organisations who attended a conference called by the council on architectural barriers for handicapped persons in Christchurch. About 10 per cent of the country’s population was handicapped in some way and so was unable to participate in the ordinary affairs Of life, said the Mayor of Christ-

church (Sir George Manning) in bis opening address. Mr W. L. F. Utley, who is in charge of the spinal injury unit at Christchurch Hospital, said Christchurch was many years behind much of the Western world and the north of the North Island to some extent in its attitude towards rehabilitation. An efficient rehabilitation centre which would help make the handicapped physically, mentally, spiritually and economically independent was needed in Canterbury.

It was stupid to try to educate the handicapped towards such independence when architectural harriers remained which prevented this from being achieved. Mr Utley said he believed that the 10 per cent quoted by the Mayor to be on the conservative side. With increasing mechanisation would

follow increasing numbers of traumatic injuries and injured people today were surviving their injuries. A panel of four handicapped persons, each speaking for five minutes, outlined the architectural barriers in the community which handicapped their daily progress. These included steps, ramps, doors, lavatories, parking facilities, entrances to buildings, inadequate room, all of which posed problems of negotiation especially for those in wheel-chairs.

Among invited speakers, Professor H. E. Field, of the Crippled Children’s Society, urged the adoption of a code of building practice developed by the Standards Association of New Zealand to make buildings more usable by the physically handicapped. Mr G. W. Chapman, of the

enginedr's department of ths Christchurch City Council, spoke of the by-laws and how they affected the handicapped. He said these by-laws could be gradually Improved by the progressive adoption of the recommendations made by the Standards Association. Mr E. V. Scarf, of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, explained that, until recently, few buildings had been specifically designed to meet the requirements of the handicapped. Many existing buildings were impossible for such people to use although not all presented barriers. Mr W. R. Lascelles, a Christchurch lawyer, recommended the establishment of the rehabilitation centre and also the prompt adoption of the relevant Standards Association code with provision for practical measures of adjustment.