I love Amman; I love hanging out with my friends in Amman, I love the weather of Amman (when it’s not too hot :P) and I certainly love walking in the streets of Amman. However, walking in the streets of Amman gives me the chance to note some things that I tend to miss when I’m driving a car. One of the things that you cannot miss in Amman is the adaptations made for people with physical disabilities, which is one issue that I am interested in, and hope that I can actually make a change in, being my field of profession. I will dedicate this post to the subject of physical disabilities, with the hope that I will soon write other articles dedicated to other kinds of disabilities.

One thing that I cannot help but to notice around the streets of Amman is the wheelchair ramps; the way they are built, and the way people handle them. I remember working on a project when I was studying for my BSc, which was around 4 years ago. The project was concerned in finding the challenges as well as accessibility problems faced by people with disabilities around the University of Jordan. I remember finishing the research, and sending recommendations to those in charge of such issues in the University, and we got promises, lots of them, as we were around the time of our graduation that our recommendations will be looked into.

The sad thing is that now, four to five years later, I still see in the streets of Amman, the same old problems that we saw as students in the University of Jordan; those being: faulty ramps with huge angles which make the ramps’ surfaces too slanted for anyone on a manual wheelchair to climb up. And yes, I tried it, and I needed help from people to push me up as I was not able to do it on my own for any of the ramps that I attempted to climb up.

Another point that I noticed is the disrespect of people with cars, who totally ignore the ramps and park right next to them, leaving no space for someone on a wheelchair to use those ramps. This is partly due to people’s ignorance, yet a big part of the problem is the lack of street signs next to the ramps drawing people’s attention not to park next to them.

And of course, we can’t forget all those holes and broken parts of the sidewalk, which makes it almost impossible to walk or move a wheelchair through easily without actually falling into one of these holes.

I do have to give the Jordanian government some credit for their effort to keep the subject of disabilities as one of their priorities, which they are always working on, one thing that I don’t see in surrounding countries, but more work is definitely needed for a better quality of life for everyone around here.