Gordon House seems no closer to resolving its problem of lack of access for disabled persons than when it passed the Disabilities Act eight months ago.

But that doesn’t mean that Parliament has not been trying to find solutions to the problem, which has been like a thorn in its side since media exposure of its inability to observe its own disability legislation last October.

The Act says that public and commercial buildings require ready access for persons with disabilities, and must be designed to make common areas accessible to those individuals.

In addition, the physical structure should not deny a person with a disability the opportunity to “fully and effectively” participate in the conduct of public affairs. Also, owners and agents of inadequate facilities are required to make alterations to ensure “as far as is reasonably practicable” access and use by persons with disabilities, including access to bathrooms, drinking fountains and emergency exits.

But Gordon House provides no such facilities for people with disabilities seeking to observe the proceedings of Parliament from within its precincts.

The latest development is that there are now approximately three options before Parliamentary committees. However, the most attractive is for the construction of a new building at National Heroes Circle, which is the least likely in the current economic environment.

The House Committee and the Senate Committee, which have the responsibility of approving an option, both heard from the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) last week on the available options. The UDC met with the House Committee prior to start of the proceedings of the House of Representatives, and the Senate Committee, prior to the sitting of the Senate on Friday.

The UDC was commissioned to assess the facility and prepare design options on how the building and its facilities can be modified to allow the disabled “to access, engage with, or participate in the parliamentary proceedings”.

The corporation presented three options. One was from Carleton University in Canada, which worked in partnership with the Caribbean School of Architecture and was facilitated by the UDC and whose proposal would cost approximately $40 million to $50 million.

Another was from the UDC, costing $75 million to $90 million, incorporating some of the Carleton University ideas, which would involve making the facilities more accommodating to parliamentarians, staff and visitors, as well.

A third option required the acquisition of an abandoned property to the back of the building for an expansion of the current building, an action which had commenced under the previous Government, but has been discarded by the current Administration.

However, as the UDC report conceded the most suitable response continues to be the construction of a new building at National Heroes Circle.

A report to the committees, presented by UDC Chief Architect Kamau Kambui said that its proposal, as well as that from the Carleton University team, each contained advantages and disadvantages.

The two proposed projects could take as many as 16 months for completion and could close down proceedings at Gordon House for as many as four months.

Kambui explained that in addition to the direct problems facing disabled members of the public wishing to visit Gordon House, there were also problems affecting current members of parliament and visitors, which would make things even more complicated for disabled persons.

These include the lack of toilet facilities and poor seating arrangements in the chamber and the gallery, with the seating in the gallery described as “extremely tight”.

“There is no access to the House and gallery for wheelchair-bound individuals, parliamentarians and members of staff. There is also limited space to introduce elevators within the existing building,” Kambui cautioned.

He said that under the Carleton University proposal, Gordon House would need a chair lift, which can run along the existing stairs in the lobby. However, it would create a problem by reducing the flow of the people using the stairs, as they could not co-exist.

Kambui said that introduction of an elevator was possible, but would require the expansion of the existing building. The tiered seating in the chamber does not accommodate wheelchair access, and there is no space available to introduce ramps to the various tiers.

Kambui also pointed out that current seating, in both the chamber and the gallery, are in violation of local and international building standards.

“The available option then, Mr chairman, is a new parliament building. That would be both compliant and allow persons to freely access the building,” he told the committees.