Disability, Mobility and Road Safety in Azerbaijan

A safe road traffic environment is especially important for people with disabilities. What’s more, the integration of people with disabilities into society is impossible without safe and accessible road-traffic and public transport systems.

Better understanding of the issues faced by people with disabilities in accessing transportation and public spaces can help to design responsive policies, improve efforts to remove disabling barriers, and provide services that enable everyone to participate equally in society. This kind of research, carried out locally for each country, can help to develop policies and services tailored to the environment, culture and needs of the people with disabilities in that particular country.

The purpose of this research by the National Automobile Club of Azerbaijan (AMAK) has therefore been to analyse the current situation related to accessible mobility in Azerbaijan and collect data on the challenges that people with disabilities face while using roads and public transport on a daily basis.

AMAK has used the findings of their research to prepare a set of recommendations aimed at solving or preventing a number of the problems faced by people with disabilities in terms of accessible mobility in Azerbaijan.

The report was launched in Baku in March at a round table discussion involving 30 representatives from different government departments and non-government organisations among others, including the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population, Ministry of Education, Baku Metropolitan LLC, Baku Transport Agency, State Committee on Family, Women and Children’s Issues, Bakubus LLC, Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, State Committee for Urban Planning and Architecture, Baku Taxi LLC, Azerbaijan University, Social Work Public Union, NGOs working in the area of disability, local media, and Red Crescent Society representatives.

The meeting was opened by Vafa Huseynli, Senior Manager on Fundraising and Social Programs at AMAK, who presented the results of the report. The participants were all actively involved in the discussions around the recommendations drafted by AMAK based on the results of the project. It was unanimously agreed that the main factor influencing the mobility of people with disabilities in Azerbaijan was a general lack of public awareness at all levels of society, which has led to negative stereotypes and a stigma attached to disability. As such, it was agreed that a necessary first step should be a public awareness campaign on recognising the rights and needs of people with disabilities. AMAK will be developing plans for such a campaign in the near future.