The accessibility program by Disability Research and Capacity Development (DRD) is based on the “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities", approved by the Government in 2014, and the Law on Persons with Disabilities, effective since January 01, 2011, which “recognize the importance of access to physical, socioeconomic, and cultural facilities, as well as health services, education, and communication channels in helping persons with disabilities execute their human rights and freedom.” “Accessibility is the state in which persons with disabilities are able to use public facilities, public transport, information technology, cultural, sports and tourism services, and other services to integrate into the community.”

However, there are still difficulties and limitations that persons with disabilities (PWDs) have to face when using these services due to the inaccessibility of the infrastructure. Aiming to help resolve such issues, the program is implementing the following approaches:

- D.Map (Disability Map) is a map application on smartphone that helps PWDs find accessible public facilities and raises public awareness of the need for accessible environment, thus promoting accessibility for PWDs. D.Map is now available on iOS and Android, with two language options of Vietnamese and English.

- iOS: https://drdvietnam.org/dmapios.html

- Android: https://drdvietnam.org/dmapandroid.html

- Accessibility survey: making accessibility evaluation of public infrastructure according to “National Technical Regulation on Construction for Disabled Access to Buildings and Facilities” (QCVN 10:2014/BXD), and of public transport, information technology, cultural services, sports, tourism and services.

- Improving accessibility: raising awareness and advising on how to improve inaccessible works with community resources.

- Consulting on reasonable adjustments: evaluating and advising on the disability and accessibility levels as a basis to suggest reasonable adjustments to businesses, schools, and hospitals.

- Training on accessibility: organizing training sessions on skills to assist PWDs in accessing public facilities, transport, information technology, cultural services, sports, tourism and services. This is one of the activities in DRD's comprehensive training, consulting, and evaluation work.

DRDVietnam