The bomb at El Nogal Club, on February 7, 2003, changed the life of many people, including Sonia Verswyvel, who at the time was in the country enjoying her holidays.

Months after the tragic event this woman gathered her strength to recover physically (she is disabled) and to transmit other people, in addition to the optimism and the desire to keep going, the obstacles she must face everyday when trying to move in her wheelchair around the city of Bogotá.

“In Colombia there are 6 million disabled people due to genetic factors, accidents and violence; that is, fourteen percent (14%) of the population which forces architects and town planners to take us into account and not impose architectural barriers on us”, Verswyvel assures, adding that although the legs or some part of the body may not work the rest does, especially the mind.

“We are still equal and we can fulfill all our duties at home, the place of work, the neighborhood and the city… We just need an architecture that enables us to move”, states the author of the handbook The wheelchair, let’s build a kind city for disabled people, a guide with the minimum measurements to enable mobility in a wheelchair.

“Just to comply with the standards is not enough to solve the problem that reduces the independence of the disabled population”, Verswyvel adds, remembering that a few days ago she visited a new restaurant, quite elegant and modern, where the norm was ‘satisfied’ with a slope that ended in four steps.

“There, the waiters –in fact, very attentive- offered to lift me. However, this is not what I want; I only want to have the possibility of being able to move by myself, which is –in fact- what the norm intends.”

Disability is a stage anyone can go through: a mother with her baby carriage, a senior citizen, as well as a person with a temporary or permanent illness.

“All, without exception, need to move and this, undoubtedly, forces to build cities to satisfy the needs that arise in the different stages of life,” explains who quotes –without exploring too much because it would be a wider topic of analysis- the facts of violence the country lives.

“There has been an increase in the number of peasants and soldiers with poor education, affected by anti-personnel mines.”

And they, as well as Verswyvel, in addition to fighting day by day, to overcome and accept the new situation and take up again a normal life, must also face, in general, those who feel pity and compassion, which –undoubtedly- greatly affects them emotionally.

The scenery becomes more disheartening when the disinterest of those who make city and housing is added thereof.

Of those who, due to lack of knowledge or simply omission, do not stop to think that some day, maybe because of an accident or age, they will have to face a city or house that attacks them. Finally, it is worth emphasizing some norms in force:

Law 361, that establishes integration mechanisms for people with limitations; Law 762 of 2002, approved by the Interamerican Convention for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against people with disability (city of Guatemala, June 7, 1999) and Decree 1660 of 2003 (MinTransport) that regulates the access of the general population and of disabled people, among others, to the different means of transportation.