The President of the Senate, Anca Dragu, participated on Friday in the first accessibility workshop dedicated to people with disabilities organized in Bistrița. On this occasion, she spoke about the intention to create a national working group that would contribute to the development of an accessibility code. The workshop in Bistrița was organized within the cultural event “The Story of Wine in the Passages of Bistrița” by the social enterprise “Inclusive Access” and the association “Alfabetul Scripor”.
“Yes, we have a legal framework, Law 448, but it is an incomplete and outdated law, and above all, not implemented. Not all types of disabilities are included in the legislation, and most importantly, it does not provide services that would enable people with disabilities to be integrated and have access to a normal life, a life as close as possible to that of people without disabilities. We are talking here about restoring the dignity of life for people who were born less fortunate than myself, for example,” said Anca Dragu, as quoted by Agerpres.
The President of the Senate extended an invitation to associations and social enterprises in the field to join the working group in order to develop legislation adapted to the current and real needs of people with disabilities.
“Dreams in colors exist for those who cannot see. Tudor Scripor, a visual artist, is the inventor of the tactile alphabet of colors for the visually impaired and one of the people who have dedicated their work to offer the visually impaired the chance to feel the beauty and warmth of colors. […] I was deeply impressed by what a few well-intentioned people can do to support individuals for whom a simple curb can be an insurmountable barrier. I invited them to join the working group that I am organizing together with all the parties involved to create a codex of accessibility, to improve legislation in the field, and, in general, to facilitate the process of integrating people with disabilities into society,” Dragu added.
Alongside the President of the Romanian Senate, the USR PLUS deputy from Bistrița-Năsăud, Lorant Sas, was also present at the Friday event.
The participants at the event spoke about accessibility as the first step towards the social inclusion of people with disabilities. Similar accessibility workshops will be organized on Saturday and Sunday as well.
Tudor Scripor, the inventor of the alphabet of colors for people with visual impairments, is from Cluj and has dedicated the past seven years to this project. After its completion, the project was awarded the gold medal at the 2019 International Exhibition of Inventions and Innovations in Geneva and has now been nominated for World Idol 2021.
With the help of the Scripor Alphabet, visually impaired individuals can find jobs more easily in fields such as food, sports, technology, or education.
“The idea came to me after a workshop that a visually impaired student attended. He gave me negative feedback, reproaching me for not making him understand colors. Now we are developing products and services that include this standardization together with the visually impaired. It’s about an alphabet of colors,” said Tudor Paul Scripor, the inventor of the Tactile Alphabet of Colors.
Currently, there are over 100,000 visually impaired individuals in Romania and nearly 30 million in Europe. As of now, there are over 18,300 registered people with disabilities in Bistrița-Năsăud County alone, the majority of whom have physical, mental, and visual disabilities.