October 14 is World Standards Day:

Standards enable 'accessibility for all'

An imperative national need :

By Dr. Ajith C. S. PERERA

Accessibility in daily life is at the core of this year's theme for World Standards Day - 'Standards make the world accessible for all'.

Life is all about accessibility to buildings and technology (based on information and communication) and everyday products that provide what we need and desire in daily life.

Accessibility could optimise the return on investment in these areas, enhance equalisation of opportunities, support and sustain quality of life and even enable disabled persons and the elderly in all spheres of society.

Anybody at any stage in life can experience temporarily reduced accessibility. When that happens, simple everyday activities should never become complicated or a safety hazard.

Advantages would also be felt by pregnant women, children, those carrying heavy luggage and pushing infants in prams as well as those temporarily debilitated.

Standards make the world accessible for all - the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) are the three partners of World Standards Cooperation (WSC).

A ramp constructed according to 'standards' with the writer's guidance at the Dehiwala Municipal Council premises, is an excellent eye opener. Standards promote safety for all and prevent waste of resources.

They coordinate their work to review and examine the standards needed, helping designers, manufacturers, policy makers and end-users to make the world safer and more accessible for all, today and tomorrow.

For example, the Standard ISO/IEC 10779:2008 offers guidelines to make IT office equipment friendlier for the elderly and disabled. Our own standard in building construction SLS ISO TR 9527:2006 provides design guidelines enabling the disabled people not only to make full use of premises and facilities in daily life but also to be active partners in national development.

The ISO 9001:2008 international standard specifies generic requirements which are intended to be applicable to all organisations regardless of type, size and product or service provided. It provides guidelines for an organisation to demonstrate its ability consistently to provide products or services to meet customer and regulatory requirements and continually improve customer delight.

For their meaningful reality, establishing accessibility and facilities become imperative. Hence in the greater national interest, in awarding ISO 9001:2008 recognition to organisations, accessibility should be an essential necessity.

Accessibility adds life

Nationally recognised and internationally accepted standards when implemented rightly contribute significantly towards making 'accessibility work equally for everyone' in all these key areas.

This in turn would enable individuals to reach their full productive potential, minimise unwanted dependency and thereby reduce colossal wastes economically and socially and promote physical and psychological well-being.

It was inspirational for me to witness how little changes in designs bring significant improvements to accessibility and how this has empowered people so as to dispel disability, diminish frustration, transform thought processes and lifestyle and 'enable' not only paraplegics worse than me but even quadriplegics with enhanced quality of daily life.

Technology based products and services have surfaced to add value to quality of daily life despite restricted abilities. They have the potential to enable the disabled and elderly, even the housebound, enhance their education and awareness, circumvent physical barriers, work productively even from home, enable buying, selling and paying utility bills, secure transmission and transaction of banking services, add quality to daily functioning, networking to keep actively in touch with friends, family and others who have mobility difficulties, entertain them and thereby maintain independence.

International Standards are drafted adhering to specific rules. They ensure environments; technology, products, services and systems are cost-effective and time efficient, commercially viable, and consistently perform the way they were intended to.

They help make life simpler and comfortable and to increase the reliability, compatibility, interchangeability, efficiency and the effectiveness of their use by everyone at an economical cost.

* A properly designed ramp will be really useful for a new mother with a baby carriage.

* A device with a large switch makes things easier for someone with an injured hand.

* A sensor stopping doors from closing could prevent accidents when a back injury impairs movement.

* The little dot above the number 5 on a phone keypad makes it easier to find numbers - a boon in the first days after an eye operation.

The biggest winners with standardisation are end-users. They could compare the offers among several suppliers and asses benefits. Also, a common standard supported by multiple suppliers offers the fewest disadvantages and a wider choice.

Standards also help businesses target their products to growing users. Companies would benefit from increased sales, a wider base of delighted customers, reduced production costs, minimised wastage of resources, improved efficiency, optimised productivity and enhanced sustainability. Life revolves round how accessible are the buildings and technology that's important in day-to-day life and the standards lay the foundation to that. It determines the extent of productivity, optimisation of human potential, safety and quality of life of people.

It is also a prerequisite to prevent waste of resources and promote sustainable economic and social development. As such, significant contributions towards accessibility should be an imperative criterion in recognition of achievers at awards presentations concerning quality and productivity.

The Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) is the recognised National Standards Body (NSB) and sole member body from Sri Lanka in ISO. However, SLSI is not and cannot be the enforcement and implementation body.

Standards are not legal documents; hence they do not impose any regulations. However, in the greater national interest, standards vital in daily life should be included into our legislation and compliance made compulsory. They should also more often be incorporated into legal contracts.

Exactly a year ago, the Supreme Court also gave an order (Ref: SCFR: 221/2009) to make compliance with standards mandatory for all new public buildings and facilities.

The people who matter (engineers, architects, investors, ministries, authorities and departments and businessmen, as well as all end-users) have the social responsibility, moral duty and legal obligation to ensure they enforce compliance with the right design standards correctly.

Verification and validation

This step is essential to ensure design standards and fulfil its intended purposes. It also prevents waste of the country's resources.

These are two critical steps of a quality management system as ISO 9001:2008. For meaningful results validation should be performed by a competent outside party having wide practical knowledge and proven good understanding of the intricacies.

Before the issue of 'certificate of conformance' such validation step is an imperative national need.

Also for a meaningful classification of our hotels, this must be an essential prerequisite.