2000 - 1991

Accessible Tourism - Course and Training Workshop by UNESCAP + Bali Conference on Accessible Tourism

The first "Asia-Pacific Conference on Tourism for People with Disability" was held in September 2000. Samarthyam team, Anjlee Agarwal and Sanjeev Sachdeva presented the case study of Dilli Haat and Delhi Metro and highlighted common barriers faced by people with disabilities when traveling for tourism purposes in the Asia-Pacific region.

At the end of the Conference the delegates (over 250 from 15 countries) presented e with a draft "Bali Declaration" for consideration by the United Nations relating to the needs and rights of travelers with disabilities. This was a good example of advocacy making full use of opportunities whenever they arise. This Declaration, is a powerful tool in disability advocacy in the Asia-Pacific region including garnering better governmental support.

2000

UNESCAP selected Delhi as one of the pilot projects (beside Bangkok and Beijing) for making 1 km radius accessible for all.

The New Delhi site consisted, primarily, of fourteen government buildings with large numbers of employees and visitors. Samarthyam advocacy and partnership with government and non-government organizations resulted in impact in both the on-going improvements in physical access to other government buildings and in terms of legislative developments (new guidelines, model by-laws, and strengthening of enforcement on access issues).

Samarthyam team was part of the access audits, training workshops and development of 1998, Space Standards for persons with disabilities and elderly forCPWD.

1999 - 1998

• Access Audits of Gol Dak Khana, RML Hospital and several schools in Delhi were undertaken.

• Awareness and Excursion Tours

Continuum of visiting tourism destinations and advocating for tourism packages, tourism sites,packages, transportation systems and hotels to be accessible continued for all these years. Some of the places visited include Agra, Mathura, Bharatpur, Jaipur, Udaipur, Mt. Abu, Ahmedabad, Vadodra, Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine, Dalhousie, Chamba, Amritsar, Shimla, Kurushetra, Rishikesh, Mussoorie, Nainital, Lucknow, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mysore, Chennai, Tirupati, Goa, Port Blair, Bangalore, Guwahati and Shillong etc.

1997 - 1993

• Advocacy on Accessibility Standards and Implementation with Government, Corporates and Service providers was the aim of Samarthyam to ensure that all people with and without disabilities get “accessibility as a human right”. The Taj Mahal and the Red Fort were visited to find out how heritage monuments can be made accessible for all. Teaming up with architects, planners and engineers was pursued for technical knowhow.

1992

The journey of thousand miles, begin with a single step:

Three people with disabilities (with Muscular Dystrophy) decided to form an Organization of Persons with Disabilities to make ‘the World Accessible’. SAMARTHYAM was born this year!!

Awareness and Excursion Tours

This year marked 11 awareness and excursion tours by road to tourism destinations of India. Since 1991- 2002, Samarthyam has organized more than 88 tours for persons with severe disabilities to places of historical, cultural, religious and tourist interests’, promoting the concept of Accessible Tourism.

1991

The Journey Started!!