The project “Road safety without barriers” is dedicated to the creation of barrier-free communicative environment for people with disabilities in the Republic of Belarus. The idea of the project is to redraft the existing road traffic rules issued by the Road Traffic Police safety using the principle of plain language. Thanks to plain language we can make the information on road safety more accessible for such vulnerable groups of road users as people with mental disabilities, children, elderly people and foreigners.
Within the project BKA translated the rights and duties of the pedestrians into the plain language – the language understandable for people with the mental disabilities. The translation of the text was conducted by the team of estimators from among the disabled people who already had prior experience in translating the texts into the plain language under the guidance of the specialist from BKA partner organization – non-governmental organization “Belarusian association of assistance to children and young people with disabilities”. Before the team got to work BKA organized the special sessions involving the Road Traffic Police on the streets of Minsk to make sure that the disabled people understood clearly the rules that they would translate. The translated texts in plain language was published in the form of the information brochures and disseminated among the disabled communities.
Moreover, the project included the organization of educational activities on road safety both for disabled and non-disabled children in rural communities of the Republic of Belarus according the principle of inclusion.