News - The National Insurance Institute has authorized a project to make the Jerusalem Old City basin accessible for people with disabilities

The Fund for Development of Services for People with Disabilities, of the National Insurance Institute, has allocated funds for a special project aimed at enabling easy access to major sites in the Old City of Jerusalem for people with disabilities.

The Old City basin is an area of extremely high religious, cultural, historical and artistic value, attracting millions of visitors every year from Israel and abroad.

The project to provide accessible infrastructure in the Old City is to be carried out jointly in 2009 and 2010 by the National Insurance Institute and the Jerusalem Development Authority, at an overall cost of approximately NIS 10 million, with the NII financing half of this cost (NIS 5 million).

In the framework of the project, aimed particularly at visitors to the Old City who have motor disabilities, the area of Jaffa Gate – the main entrance to the Old City – will be adapted to persons with disabilities, and accessible walking routes will be built in the Jewish, Christian and Moslem Quarters. Furthermore, the possibility of acquiring a special vehicle for transporting persons with limited mobility within the Old City is being explored.

Other plans encompassed in the project include accessibility arrangements in the Tower of David Museum, the Archeological Park and Davidson Center, the City of David and the Herodian Quarter Museum in the Jewish Quarter. Special focus will be placed on accessibility arrangements for persons with visual and hearing impairments, using special technologies such as special assistive hearing devices for audio-visual presentations, 3-Dimensional “touch” models, vocal signs and visual transcriptions.

The Director-General of the National Insurance Institute, Mrs. Esther Dominissini, states: “The rights of persons with disabilities is a supreme social value. The National Insurance Institute promotes many projects in this field, investing tens of millions of shekels throughout the country. We hope that this project, to be carried out in the Old City together with the Jerusalem Development Authority, will provide additional possibilities for persons with disabilities to spend their time pleasantly in Jerusalem.”