VANESSA HARRIS: Hi, This is Vanessa Harris with Fun4theDisabled. I’m here with Kristine France Zúñiga and Andrea Legarreta, who are experts from Chile on Universal Design & Universal Accessibility. Welcome to Fun4theDisabled.

KRISTINE FRANCE ZUNIGA: Hi. Thanks for the invitation. And hello for everybody.

VANESSA HARRIS: Thank you.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Thank you. Thank you very much for the invitation.

VANESSA HARRIS: Yeah, OK. Kristine is a Chilean representative for SMART cities for all on the Global Alliance on Accessible Technologies and Environments, or GAATES, country representative for Chile. She’s the head of the Architecture and Universal Accessibility Program at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Vice President of the Accessibility Committee of the National College of Architects, and Consultant and expert on universal accessibility-related laws and standards for the Chilean Ministry of Housing and Urbanism, National Congress, National Standardization Institute, and National Statistics Institute. She’s won numerous awards throughout her career. Now I know that much about Kristine. So Andrea, tell me about yourself and don’t be shy.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: (LAUGHS) No, I was a citizen, a real occupied and active citizen for the design and universal accessibility. I joined Ciudad Accesible Corporación since 10 years ago, and we’re an NGO corporation that are always trying to put the accessibility design in the view, because here in our country is really starting. We have, I can say that a good law about that, but we need more practice. We need more will of the authority to carry on this. So we create a lot of material, trying to put by social media, the theme in all place, because it’s not considered ever.

VANESSA HARRIS: I’m just going to get right into the meat of it. What really is universal accessibility?

KRISTINE FRANCE ZUNIGA: Well, universal accessibility, as we consider, is a universal design, in the infrastructure, in the architecture, because for me, universal accessibility is the way to open the space and the elements to everyone, not only to some kind of people like to say, then for all people in whatever the condition that we have along the life.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: OK, for people with all age and ability to…

KRISTINE FRANCE ZUNIGA: Yes.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: To don’t discriminate, discriminate. You say?

KRISTINE FRANCE ZUNIGA: Yes.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Yes.

VANESSA HARRIS: Yeah, what is the accessibility chain?

KRISTINE FRANCE ZUNIGA: That is that access route, like accessible route or circulation inside a building, use and communication must have to stay linked with another, for example, we see one accessible bathroom inside a building, But we don’t have access. Well, this bathroom (LAUGHS) doesn’t work. Or maybe we have an alternative access in one building, in an ancient building, I don’t know, an historic building, and we have maybe an accessible entrance, but we don’t see where this is, and we need this communication.

VANESSA HARRIS: Right.

KRISTINE FRANCE ZUNIGA: Then the chain. Yes. Then the chain is so important to have in the constant that access route use and communication, have to be totally linked.

VANESSA HARRIS: Yeah so Andrea, were you the advisory expert for the Guide for Accessible Solutions?

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Well, we are an active trying to put the view in those things that are not functioning.

VANESSA HARRIS: OK.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: And sometimes that is not well received, but when we go to a place, we try to notice, that there are a lot of obstacles in an accessible route. That accessible route is like a route (LAUGHS) with two meters average of wide. Yes, and of height, it has two and 10 meters. Two and 10 meters.

VANESSA HARRIS: OK.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: And that route must be without obstacles, yeah? ‘Cause in the real world, we can find there a lot of obstacle like perhaps, scooters that people leave in the sidewalk, bicycle that are not stationed, cars that here in our country, the people put his car above the sidewalks and doesn’t matter what happened about the person that goes in a wheelchair and cannot make the curve to… I don’t know.

VANESSA HARRIS: Yeah, OK.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: So, and I want to show something that we are making a program this…

VENESSA HARRIS: OK.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: I hope you can see well, yes.

VENESSA HARRIS: Yeah.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: That is, stickers that we recently made, said there obstacle, and you put… Because one obstacle in the sidewalks perhaps, it’s worth it to mention problem for people, for old people or blind people or people with another disability, like a user of wheel ride. It’s a program to call the community, Please don’t do that. Don’t put the car in the sidewalks. Don’t leave the bicycle in the middle of the sidewalk or the cross in the street, don’t leave…

VANESSA HARRIS: Do you put those stickers on the cars and the bicycles and the scooters?

KRISTINE FRANCE ZUNIGA: Yes.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Yes.

VANESSA HARRIS: Oh, OK.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Yes.

VANESSA HARRIS: It’s like activism.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Yes.

VANESSA HARRIS: OK. So who does that? Is that done by the police or is that done by just anybody who’s a resident, who does it?

ANDREA LEGARRETA: We does it. (LAUGHS)

VANESSA HARRIS: OK.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Yes, we share the stickers for, the person that we collaborate with us and to share and to put them in the city.

VANESSA HARRIS: Yeah, OK.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Old people that are walking around, the street, people that have the problem with those obstacles, and it’s a kinda a program that we, get in the social…

VANESSA HARRIS: Social media.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Media take content about that, because the people don’t see that those kind of things are an obstacle for others.

VANESSA HARRIS: Yeah.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: If you don’t have a some familiarity with that condition you don’t see that those attitudes were a problem.

VANESSA HARRIS: Yeah.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: You know?

KRISTINE FRANCE ZUNIGA: OK, I want to add, that all that thing that have said Andrea, and how the corporation is founded, all these things the characteristic of this route on all of these things, we put in the accessibility guidelines, the first of Latin America in 2003 and…

VANESSA HARRIS: Really?

KRISTINE FRANCE ZUNIGA: We make another… Yes. Another publishing. And now we have illustrated our policy, all of these things that the accessible route in the city, or inside the building. There’s 200.1 and the width, is we have illustrated to have a better communication about the accessibility law.

VANESSA HARRIS: OK.

KRISTINE FRANCE ZUNIGA: And all the staff are participating of this like activating, like in inside the city and like expert in the governmental commission, we have the both side: like citizen, like user, like expert.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: In effect, we have the pedestrian view but, for the site that enable people.

VANESSA HARRIS: OK.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Not as only for the pedestrian, because people, in general don’t realize that the pedestrian are not only the person that have all the abilities, in well condition.

VANESSA HARRIS: Well it’s not just able-bodied, it’s anybody.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Yeah, yes.

VANESSA HARRIS: OK, you’re giving extensive training and workshops in Latin America and the Caribbean?

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Well, the workshop is talking about the material that we made. I don’t know if you know our material that are like practical, and easy mode of communicate the accessibility?

VANESSA HARRIS: OK.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: We have maybe 16 theme books that is all public in the web with different themes like parking, like sidewalks, like what is universal design, which are the necessities in a work environment. Well, a lot of them, that we are making because we noticed that there’s some needs to cover because we are always looking at the cities at the (LAUGHS) construction and which are the accessibility failings.

VANESSA HARRIS: OK.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: So, that workshop try to communicate, base it in that information.

VANESSA HARRIS: OK.

KRISTINE FRANCE ZUNIGA: And we make some training for making accesibilization for the people.

ANDREA LEGSRRETA: Yes because we have both, something talk… Sorry. The teacher talk something about the material, but there is a practical one that we invited to the participant to sit down in the wheelchair, we put some…

VANESSA HARRIS: Blindfold.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Yes, we get blind, and we are visiting the bathroom, the sidewalks, the different place that we are staying in that moment, can be outside of the contraction, or can be the building, or can be inside. It depends is a university or it’s a enterprise or whatever. So, we think that the people that are not neighbor (LAUGHS) to the disability, they don’t know how they feel. So when you sit down a person in a wheelchair or put blind, the world for them change immediately. In that moment, we have a testament that in that moment they realize that oh, something like oh, I never think that when I walk for the sidewalk, the cars passing were so amazing, or I was absolutely disoriented because I don’t… Can’t see or what else? It’s very fantastic the reaction.

VANESSA HARRIS: Yeah.

KRISTINE FRANCE ZUNIGA: Yes.

VANESSA HARRIS: So, they finally get understanding that they’re not gonna have. How do you motivate people to take these workshops so they get that understanding?

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Usually for example, the university they have the week of the inclusion, and in that week they made a lot of activities.

VANESSA HARRIS: OK.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: And they knew about us, and they invite us.

VANESSA HARRIS: OK.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Yes. Sometimes in the enterprise the same, because when you live that condition, really notice what you have to design. If you never have been in a wheelchair, you will not notice that a step is a problem or an obstacle.

VANESSA HARRIS: Yeah.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Yeah, so they call us for us to do it.

VANESSA HARRIS: Yeah, here in the United States, they say… Well, I heard it in Canada, “Nothing about us without us.”

KRISTINE FRANCE ZUNIGA: Yes.

VANESSA HARRIS: Yeah.

KRISTINE FRANCE ZUNIGA: This is I think is the power phrase that we have like in the universal accessibility, the corporation, that we work, start in this point, start with the experience of all the people with disability and have in 2000, no. 1999 maybe in these years start to… From the experience of people with disability to make some guidelines about universal design and all of this. I think this the powerful of our corporation.

VANESSA HARRIS: OK.

ANDREA LEGARRETA: Yeah.

VANESSA HARRIS: OK, excellent.