PWD-friendly mall is model of accessibility

By VERA Files

What's the most accessible mall in the country frequented by the most number of persons with disabilities?

A group of PWDs says it's the 16-hectare Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan, which has the most number of facilities catering to PWDs.

With its handicap ramps spread out all over the shopping center, and wider-than-usual parking slots for PWDs, Greenhills has become the go-to mall for PWDs.

But the mall's biggest investment is the stairlift that allows wheelchair users to climb from one floor to another with ease.

Greenhills now has two of these contraptions, the first one installed six years ago, and the second one just recently. It is the only mall in the country that has this facility.

"We've become sensitive to (PWDs') needs. It's just our way of giving access to everybody," said Greenhills Shopping Center general manager Cathy Caseres Kho.

Lalaine Guanzon, a paraplegic who is also the public relations advisor the Circle of Friends Foundation, Inc., said many places in the country remain unfriendly to PWDs, even if the law on accessiblity for PWDs has been in effect for close to 30 years now.

The law requires the construction, renovation, and repair of public and private buildings to give greater mobility to PWDs, but most establishments in the country have remained non-compliant.

"In the Philippines, if you're a PWD, it's as if you're supposed to just stay at home," Guanzon said.

But Greenhills Shopping Center, one of the oldest malls in the country, is showing the way toward greater PWD accessibility.

"I'm seeing a lot of PWDs going around and enjoying Greenhills Shopping Center," Guanzon said.

(This story is part of Reporting on Persons With Disability, a project of VERA Files in partnership with The Asia Foundation and Australian Agency for International Development. VERA Files is put out by veteran journalists taking a deeper look at current issues. VERA is Latin for "true.")