in a wheelchair, a resident of Haut-Rhin will be stuck at home for more than six months due to an elevator breakdown

A disabled woman who lives in Huningue, in Haut-Rhin, has been stuck at home since December due to an elevator breakdown and will have to wait another four and a half months to be able to go out, France Bleu Alsace learned on Wednesday March 6 . In a wheelchair, Martine, 60, has not been able to leave her apartment located on the seventh floor of her building for two and a half months. She has not set foot outside since December 16, 2023. “I can’t take it anymore, I’m fed up. With the disability it’s already hard, but on top of having to stay locked up it’s even worse”she confides to France Bleu Alsace.

Another elevator exists in the condominium but it is too small to accommodate an electric wheelchair. “We used to go out, go to restaurants… We can’t do anything anymore. It’s like I was in prison”, she laments. Her social landlord, Habitat Haute-Alsace, informed her that the situation would last several more months. He plans to make the repairs in four and a half months, more than six months in total without going out. The general director of Habitat Haute-Alsace, Guillaume Couturier, believes that this deadline is “incompressible”. However, he assures that he is trying to reduce it. A temporary solution was proposed to Martine: use a patient lift to carry her in her chair. “Impossibleexplains Yves, her husband, the chair has no grip and weighs 100 kilos.”

The interministerial delegate for accessibility, Isabelle Saurat, visiting Strasbourg to present a new aid system for businesses and other small establishments open to the public, judged “unacceptable” Martine’s situation. “There are solutions in our societies, which are certainly complex. For elevator manufacturers, we have not yet found them”, recognized Isabelle Saurat. A manager from the social landlord is due to come see Martine next Friday.