If you are in a wheelchair and want to do a procedure at the Municipality of Nicoya, you need to ask for help to get up the sidewalk and later the stairs to the building of the Casa de la Cultura, where some of the municipal departments are temporarily housed.
Law 7600 is aimed at providing equal opportunities to people with some handicap, an issue that all of the country’s public institutions should comply with, including the municipalities.
In prior days, the Constitutional Court ruled in regard to 26 municipalities in the country that didn’t want to provide information about how they are trying to solve what is outlined in Law 7600.
Vanlly Cantillo, in charge of the court’s press office, explained that to date they have evaluated four of these 26 municipalities and only the Municipality of San Rafael de Heredia doesn’t completely comply with the regulation.
Of the 26 municipalities that were denounced, none are in Guanacaste, reported Cantillo. However, in Nicoya there is still much to do. This was recognized by Marcos Jimenez, the municipal mayor, who affirmed that they are working on creating an infrastructure that conforms with what is outlined in Law 7600.
Although Jimenez recognized that little can be done with the old buildings, he assured that regulatory measures will be taken into account in the new infrastructure. “To say a lot has been done would be to lie… and the problem we have is that Costa Ricans aren’t paying the taxes and we understand this; what is certain is that we don’t have sufficient resources for this end,” he explained.
Jimenez indicated that they are thinking of building a new municipal building that would have facilities for users such as elevators. “To build a new construction is a solution. What we do is to set up a space for an elevator and improve the parts that need to be improved,” he commented.
As an example, Jimenez sited the new building of the Red de Cuido (Care Network), whose structure complies with corresponding ramps, elevators and access ways.
Law 7600 came into force in May of 1996, but there are still public institutions that don’t comply with it.
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