Elevators should be built even in four-story buildings

Prague - The Government Committee for Disabled Citizens is advocating for the introduction of new regulations, according to which new or reconstructed residential buildings with four or more floors would need to be equipped with elevators. So far, elevators are required only in buildings that are five stories or higher. Minister for Minorities and Human Rights Džamila Stehlíková told journalists this today after the committee meeting.
    "We propose to lower the threshold to four floors, considering that accessibility is a requirement that is a modern trend and takes into account not only the needs of disabled individuals but also seniors and parents with strollers," Stehlíková told ČTK.
    The costs associated with implementing the proposed regulation in the case of reconstructions, according to the spokesperson of the construction company PSJ Miroslav Fuks, would not increase by more than five percent, and in more complex cases, by a maximum of ten. The regulation would have a positive impact, according to builders, on four-story panel houses where elevators could be constructed inside the building. "That would allow for further extensions in their case," Fuks told ČTK. For older structures, he noted it would be more complicated as elevators would have to be built on the outside.
    Developers do not see the potential adoption of this regulation as too complicated either. "If a situation arose where we had to build four-story apartments with elevators, it would, of course, increase costs somewhat," said Finep spokesperson Pavla Temrová to ČTK. However, according to her, residential buildings with fewer floors are generally more luxurious, so it would not significantly affect the final price for customers.
    Whether the existing rules will change, however, will be decided by the Ministry for Regional Development. According to Stehlíková's intention, the new regulation should be incorporated into the relevant decree, which this office is currently amending.
    The Government Committee will also support accessibility modifications of public spaces and buildings through grants from the national development program Mobility for All. Grants will be provided not only as before for barrier-free entrances to buildings, but newly also for the installation of elevators and lifting platforms as well as for barrier-free modifications of sanitary facilities.
    "For us, every positive change is a step that is not easy, and it is a matter of time when the era for greater consideration of the needs of disabled citizens matures," declared Stehlíková.
    The willingness of society towards the disabled is also growing only very slowly, according to the committee's vice-chairman Václav Krása, who is also the chairman of the National Council of Persons with Disabilities of the Czech Republic. Changes in favor of the disabled in building regulations, according to Krása, can also benefit others.
    "In Europe, the concept is being advocated that a person should be able to use their apartment for a lifetime. That they should not have to move when they age or when something happens to them," Krása told ČTK.
    "This idea is completely new to us; builders have not yet accepted it at all. We are still building barriered homes. Builders are focused firmly on profit and do not take the needs of people into account," Krása lamented.
    The disabled are not exactly welcomed with open arms even in the building of the government office. The room designated for press conferences is not adapted to their needs, and Minister Stehlíková, therefore, improvised today during a meeting with journalists alongside other speakers while standing under the podium. A wheelchair user like Krása would find it very difficult to get up the stairs, and even if he managed to do so, journalists would not see him over the table.