Officials at the North West regional Delegation of Public Works have confirmed the road is being built in line with disability-inclusive guidelines.
The guidelines, according to disability rights advocates who have engaged with the project, translate into a specific set of features. These include accessible traffic lights that signal changes from green to red to yellow in ways perceivable to persons with visual impairment, tactile indicators at zebra crossings, and pedestrian walkways built to a width of about one metre, wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs, white canes and crutches.
Chick Sama, Coordinator of the Coordinating unit of associations of persons with disabilities in the North West (Cuapwd), said the inclusion of such standards follows sustained advocacy by his organisation, which pushed for persons with disabilities and access experts to be involved in shaping the design from an early stage. “It is important for every person to know that when the discourse around the Bamenda-Urban crossing began, we carried out a series of advocacies to see that there should be the implementation of inclusion best practices”, Sama said.
He added that smooth transitions at drainage crossings and ramps rather than steps at median dividers are also part of the standards being adopted, ensuring that wheelchair users are not obstructed after crossing the road. Sama noted that such measures add little to no additional cost to construction, while significantly improving usability for the wider public, not only persons with disabilities.
« They are doing inclusion for everyone », Sama said, pointing out that disability can affect any person at any point in life, making the standards a matter of broad public benefit rather than a limited accommodation.
With the road now at the halfway stage of construction, disability advocates say they are encouraged by the willingness of the project supervisors to adopt inclusive best practices. He calls for more consultations with inclusive rights expert who should provide technical orientation until completion, alongside a public presentation of the finished design for residents to review.
Once completed, the Bamenda-Urban crossing is expected to stand as a reference point for inclusive road construction in Cameroon’s public infrastructure sector, reflecting a growing alignment between the Ministry of Public Works engineering standards and disability-inclusion commitments of the country.
Jennyhans Nde
